Dassault Systèmes introduced “Emma Twin,” an avatar designed to raise awareness of the key role that virtual twins have in advancing healthcare and the innovations that are shaping the future of medicine.

Through a social media programme, Emma Twin will share stories explaining how the virtual twin of her body was created from anonymous health data to be used for an infinite number of tests that give doctors and researchers a profound understanding of diseases and the effects of new and improved treatments.

Her social media posts will document her participation in ongoing research and medical innovations including:  clinical trials using Medidata solutions; the reaction of her heart to different procedures in the Living Heart project; testing CorNeat Vision’s corneal transplants; epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease studies in the Living Brain project; wearing the IASO drug administration and monitoring device; and optimizing the home for older adults.  They will also highlight: DAMAE Medical’s portable microscope for detecting skin cancer; Dynocardia’s blood pressure monitoring solution; FEops’ cardiac monitoring; LUCID Implants’ customised facial implants; and the VORTHEx radiotherapy simulation experience.

“Through Emma Twin, we will share stories about the impact of virtual twins on healthcare, in an engaging, meaningful way. Our virtual twins have been used to swiftly develop COVID-19 vaccines, optimise surgical procedures, and provide patients with a greater understanding of treatment options.  By leveraging our pioneering technology, we can draw attention to major healthcare challenges and demonstrate how the virtual world improves outcomes in real life,” said Victoire de Margerie, Vice President, Corporate Equity, Marketing & Communications, Dassault Systèmes.

Virtual twins accelerate the development of solutions to urgent needs for more precise, preventive healthcare by enabling research and health-related disciplines to model, test and treat a human body as precisely, safely and effectively as other industries can with cars, buildings or airplanes.

Emma Twin is the next act in Dassault Systèmes’ “The Only Progress is Human” initiative, dedicated to healthcare and patient experience.  In 2020, the company launched The Only Progress is Human to increase awareness of societal and environmental challenges and inspire the use of virtual worlds to drive sustainable innovations in areas such as urbanisation and water conservation.

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Counterfeit pharma jeopardise patient safety, infringe on intellectual property rights, and undermine the credibility of the pharma industry. Current methods of combating counterfeits are often time-consuming, expensive, and prone to human error.

The recent government announcement that 300 samples would have QR codes has some restrictions. QR codes can be rendered inoperable by scratching them off using a sharp object or marker. It is useless if the QR codes are broken. What use does the label serve, and who is responsible for making sure the QR code is still working when it changes commercial hands? What assurance is there that counterfeiters who can easily mimic a brand’s packaging, name, and logo won’t also be able to mimic its QR codes?

A more efficient and accurate solution is required to identify counterfeit drugs and protect public health.

Combining generative AI and image recognition is probably the answer. With the use of Google Lens and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, a complex system for assessing photo metadata (Photo Meta Data) on pharma packaging and verifying the authenticity in real time.

I’d want to make a recommendation for pharma companies, government officials, and customers to combine the strength of AI with picture recognition to create a foolproof way to restrict the risks connected with counterfeit drugs.

*In 2018, Google Images introduced some new features to its image search results. Next to a selected photo, the creator of the image, the credit line, and a copyright notice are immediately displayed. This works by reading the corresponding IPTC photo metadata fields embedded in the image file. On August 31, 2020, this feature was enhanced to also display a licensable badge above an image and a link to the licensing information.

System requirements

a. Generative AI: Implement advanced Generative AI algorithms that analyse visual patterns, text, and packaging features to identify discrepancies between genuine and counterfeit pharma packs.

b. Google lens: Utilise the powerful visual recognition capabilities of Google Lens to capture and interpret codes on the packaging swiftly.

c. Cloud-based database: Establish a cloud-based database containing comprehensive information about authorised pharma products, including packaging details, manufacturing locations, and authorised distributors.

d. Machine learning: Train the system using machine learning techniques to improve accuracy and adaptability over time.

System workflow

1. Generative AI will be used to create unique invisible image tags for each product (like UID). This can be done by training the AI on a dataset of existing batch numbers, allowing it to generate new, unique invisible image tags on brand logo / brand name that cannot be replicated by counterfeiters

2. These unique image tags will then be printed on the packaging of each pharma product during the manufacturing process. (Covertly on Brand Logo and Brand Name)

3. Google Lens will be used by consumers to scan these image tags. Upon scanning, Google Lens will verify the code against a database of legitimate codes (image tags). If the code matches one in the database, the product is confirmed as authentic. If not, the product is flagged as potentially counterfeit.

4. In addition, the system can provide detailed product information, such as manufacturing date, batch number, expiry date, etc., to further assure the consumer of the product’s authenticity.

Key features and benefits

a. Real-time authentication: The system provides instant verification of pharma packs by scanning image tags using Google Lens and analysing visual patterns with Generative AI. This ensures rapid and accurate identification of counterfeit products.

b. User-friendly interface: Develop a user-friendly mobile application or web portal that allows consumers, healthcare professionals, and regulatory authorities to access the system easily and perform authentication checks.

c. Comprehensive database: Maintain a cloud-based database containing detailed information about authorised pharma products, enabling prompt comparison and verification during scanning.

d. Enhanced traceability: Enable pharma companies to track their products throughout the supply chain, reducing the risk of counterfeit products entering the market and facilitating targeted recalls if necessary.

e. Regulatory compliance: Support regulatory authorities in enforcing pharma regulations and combating counterfeit drugs by providing them with a reliable tool for inspections and investigations.

f. Consumer empowerment: Empower consumers to verify the authenticity of pharma products before purchasing, thereby increasing trust in the market and reducing the potential harm caused by counterfeit drugs.

Counterfeit pharma products are a growing global concern. By offering a scalable and reliable solution, our business aims to address the needs of pharma manufacturers, regulators, healthcare professionals, and consumers worldwide. The market potential is substantial, with potential revenue streams including licensing the technology to pharma companies, charging fees for database access, and offering premium services for enhanced features.

By harnessing the power of Generative AI with Google Lens for scanning image tags on pharma packs, proposed solution provides an efficient, accurate, and scalable approach to combating counterfeit pharma products. With enhanced authentication capabilities, regulatory compliance support, and empowered consumers, the solution aims to make a significant impact on public health and safety while fostering trust in the pharma industry.

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A notable shift is underway in the pharma industry as companies are increasingly prioritising the adoption of emerging technologies and stringent compliance measures to safeguard against cyber threats and data breaches. Consequently, there is a surge in hiring for cybersecurity-related roles including data, automation, security, compliance, risk, and relationships in Q2 2023, reflecting a 34 per cent compound annual growth rate since 2020, reveals the Job Analytics Database of GlobalData.

An analysis of Company Filing Analytics Database revealed that cybersecurity dominated pharma industry discussions during Q2 2023 as well amid the push for digital transformation.

Misa Singh, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “The growing digital engagement, coupled with the rising occurrence of data breaches, has prompted pharma companies to place a heightened emphasis on roles geared towards minimising enterprise risks. These roles aim to advocate privacy measures and develop cybersecurity strategies that enhance the comprehension of privacy-related risks linked to emerging technologies.”

Gilead Sciences Inc’s “Associate General Counsel, Privacy” role focuses on advising on the adoption of new and emerging technologies, and compliance initiatives to reduce or mitigate enterprise risk as the business expands its digital footprint. GSK plc’s “Assistant General Counsel, Privacy and Digital, Global R&D” role is for promoting global digital, privacy, and cyber strategy across the US business. The role also supports special projects as assigned (e.g., CCPA and other US state laws, Brexit, Schrems II, Data Transfer Risk Assessments, HIPAA, AI/ML, Enterprise Tech Initiatives).

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc’s “Director, Corporate Counsel – Technology Privacy” role involves (guidance in) adoption of IOT/E, generative AI, robotics, and machine learning understanding of privacy risks associated with emerging technology, including tokenisation, and combining data sets.

Eli Lilly and Co’s “Sr. Director – Counsel – Consumer/Customer Operations” role defines requirements for shaping Lilly USA LLC’s transformation efforts to be a more data-driven, customer-centric organisation in both traditional advertising channels and innovative digital worlds pertaining to eCommerce and virtual care.

Singh concludes, “In an era where data is the lifeblood of the pharma industry, the shift towards embracing technology and fortifying cybersecurity measures is not just a strategic move but a critical imperative. As we navigate this transformative landscape, these cybersecurity-related roles serve as the guardians of our digital future, ensuring privacy, compliance, and resilience in the face of evolving challenges.”

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Parexel and Partex announced a preferred strategic alliance designed to leverage artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions to accelerate drug discovery and development for biopharma customers worldwide.

Parexel’s expertise across Phase I to IV clinical development combined with Partex’s big data and AI capabilities is expected to further advance the efforts of drug developers working to understand the probability of clinical success of assets in their portfolio and recommend other disease indications for which their assets may be clinically viable.

“One of the biggest and most complex challenges in drug development is anticipating the investigational therapies that will be safe and effective treatment options. Our innovative alliance with Partex helps to address this challenge by bringing to the forefront those assets with the strongest probability of clinical success, in turn enabling customers to focus their time and resources where it is most beneficial to patients,” said Jamie Macdonald, CEO, Parexel.

Under the alliance, clinical trial execution by the Partex group of companies will be managed by Parexel. Parties will also collaborate on improving clinical trial execution for customers through the Partex-validated AI platform, adding to and expanding Parexel’s existing AI tools and capabilities.

“By combining Partex’s cutting-edge AI capabilities with Parexel’s renowned clinical research expertise, we aim to accelerate the delivery of safe and effective therapies to patients worldwide, ultimately transforming the biopharma landscape,” added Dr Gunjan Bhardwaj, CEO, Partex.

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Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its cloud provider to help provide access to affordable and innovative medicines. As part of the collaboration, the company has migrated it’s SAP platform entirely on to AWS.

A company release from AWS informed, “By centralising the platform on the world’s leading cloud, Dr. Reddy’s will accelerate the development of new healthcare applications, grow its digital platform to help the organisation serve more than 1.5 billion patients by 2030 around the world, and enable healthcare providers to better track the progress of patients.“

It added, “Since 2019, Dr. Reddy’s has been progressively creating and migrating digital applications to AWS to automate the company’s IT infrastructure. Leveraging AWS, Dr. Reddy’s has made healthcare more accessible by launching new applications faster, to provide better service to its customers.”

It further informed, “With AWS, Dr Reddy’s aims to reduce application development time by 30 per cent, improve internal operations, accelerate improvements in generic drug manufacturing processes, and drive new areas of innovation. The company is one of the first AWS customers to run its data center and disaster recovery workloads now from both the new AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region and the AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region. This enables Dr. Reddy’s to ensure even greater continuity of its services by running applications across multiple highly available data centers in India.”

“Working with AWS gives us access to the best-in-class technology innovation, enabling us in our vision to provide affordable healthcare to patients in nearly 70 countries. The reliability of AWS helps us accelerate the delivery of high-quality digital products, allowing us to transform customer service, and help us to deliver on our sustainability goals by making our supply chains greener,” said Mukesh Rathi, CIDO at Dr. Reddy’s.

“In addition to the cloud migration and modernisation efforts with AWS, Dr. Reddy’s and Amazon have entered into a strategic collaboration to build innovative go-to-market models to help fuel long-term growth,” said MV Ramana, CEO of branded markets (India & Emerging Markets), Dr Reddy’s.

“AWS’s proven expertise in supporting healthcare customers globally, coupled with our breadth of cloud technologies and global infrastructure, empowers Dr. Reddy’s to create differentiated customer and patient experiences while reducing the environmental footprint of their IT operations. Our shared culture of customer obsession will help Dr. Reddy’s unlock the next frontier of care delivery in healthcare,” said Vaishali Kasture, Director of AWS India and South Asia at Amazon Web Services India

AWS recently announced its plans to invest Rs 1,05,600 crores ($12.7 billion) into cloud infrastructure in India by 2030 to meet growing customer demand for cloud services in India.

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The pharma industry is one of the critical pillars of India’s economy, and supply chain is what gives it enduring strength. For the longest time, however, the pharma supply chain was unorganised. This is changing now, with the entry of big players and retail giants. We are also seeing a shift away from the old ways when patients used to go to pharmacists to pick up the medicines they needed. Today the pharma, healthcare, and retail industries offer not just products, but personalised experiences and value-added services to patients. Products are delivered to people’s doorsteps in record time, that too with discounts and offers.

India is the world’s third largest producer of pharma products and has earned the sobriquet of “the pharmacy to the world”. Indian pharma companies have a substantial share in the prescription market in the US and the EU. India also has the largest number of FDA-approved plants outside the US.

To continue driving growth for the industry, we need modern, smart supply chains that are compliant with both domestic and international regulations; follow robust standard operating procedures; have multimodal capabilities across air, land, and water; provide end-to-end visibility and control; and use the latest technologies for competitive advantage. Let us examine some of the recent developments and emerging trends on the policy, consumer, and technology fronts that are shaping the evolution of India’s pharma supply chain.

Policy-aided modernisation and growth
The supply chain in post-Covid times is being shaped, in part, by government policies. In September 2022, the Central Government announced the National Logistics Policy with the objective of lowering the cost of logistics, increasing the competitiveness of Indian products in domestic and international markets, and improving the efficiency of industries. India’s pharma MSMEs will benefit from the reduction in logistics costs. The establishment of multi-modal logistics parks, as proposed in the policy, will improve last-mile connectivity, and strengthen the cold storage and warehousing infrastructure across the country. It will also allow for inventory buffers, thus lessening our dependence on other countries for raw materials.

In the pharma supply chain, products are usually sent to C&F agents, then to city-level distributors, and ultimately to retailers. Since much of this happens at a local level, it can cause compliance issues, especially when it concerns medicines that need to be transported and stored at specific temperatures. This is because, in India, temperatures can vary widely across states, and even within cities in the same state. The newly proposed storage and warehousing policies will guide the ongoing efforts of pharma and logistics companies in addressing such issues by increasing the accessibility of the cold chain infrastructure and enhancing the connectivity to the storage areas through multimodal connectivity.

Building robust cold chain and reverse logistics capabilities
Cold chain is one of the toughest aspects of logistics to get right, and the demand for it is on the rise. Pharma and healthcare companies often ship products like vaccines, blood products, and medicines, which need to be maintained at certain temperatures to preserve their potency and validity. This can be achieved through temperature-controlled warehousing and transportation, with IoT sensors to continuously monitor the temperature. Furthermore, cold chain systems must have inbuilt protocols for mitigating risk and loss, and strong capabilities for dealing with contingencies.

Reverse logistics capability is yet another crucial aspect of pharma supply chain. There could be times when certain products need to be withdrawn from the market. This entails picking up the product from every nook and corner of the country and bringing it to the company’s warehouses or to their country of origin. There’s a need for more investments in setting up dedicated centres that perform quality checks, re-labelling, and dispatch of the returned products to the warehouses. Technology will help in developing a robust control environment to prevent fraud and tampering in both forward and reverse logistics.

The role of Blockchain
Spurious drugs are a serious issue across the world, but a technology-enabled, transparent supply chain can help in addressing it. In Africa, improvements in pharma supply chain have reduced the prevalence of spurious and failed drugs from almost 45 per cent to less than 10 per cent in the past 10-15 years.

Supply chain visibility, speed and coordination are critical to the safe and timely delivery of pharma products, and Blockchain technology can be of great help in several areas. These include monitoring the cold chain; identifying contamination of high-value, temperature-sensitive products; ensuring the authenticity of products; improving time and cost efficiencies; addressing regulatory requirements for drug tracking, and more. Blockchain can help in accurately recording price, date, location, quality, certification, and other relevant information. This improves supply chain transparency and traceability and reduces administrative costs. Blockchain can help pharma companies build trust and optimise the value chain through secure and tamper-evident data-sharing; product provenance; and digital asset tracking. Blockchain technology can give a clear picture of every capsule, every drop of a product from the manufacturer to the consumer, and nobody can manipulate the data.

Predictive supply chain with Big Data, AI, and ML
Pharma businesses that invest in Big Data Analytics, or work with logistics partners who do so, gain a great competitive advantage, as they can make more informed decisions, optimise capacity utilisation, reduce risk, and improve customer experiences. Dynamic, real-time route optimisation through the correlation of multiple data streams (such as shipments, weather, and traffic) can enable more efficient scheduling of consignments, optimisation of load sequences, and accurately predict the time of arrival. Smarter forecasting of demand, capacity, and labour can significantly optimise planning and resource utilisation and reduce supply chain costs. Big Data can be used to mitigate risks by detecting, evaluating, and providing alerts on potential disruptions caused by unexpected events, man-made or natural. This can be further enhanced with the integration of data from IoT devices.

Big Data, together with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), can also help pharma companies predict prescription trends and align their operations accordingly, well in advance. Geography-based market trends, customer behaviours, and healthcare trends can be used to predict orders. For instance, Rajasthan might have higher prevalence of a different set of illnesses as compared to Karnataka. The demand for medicines will accordingly differ. By studying the demand data, AI will be able to predict the prescription trends, and enable pharma companies and retailers to be ready with adequate quantities of the required products at the distribution centres that are closest to the most likely customers. This can help pharma retailers to meet heavy demand and offer quick home deliveries.

With pharma industry accelerating its digital transformation journey, the supply chain services providers have also increased their focus on driving innovations backed by data to strengthen the pharma and medical logistics. For instance, DP World’s production management and business intelligence tools provide enhanced visibility and control across the supply chain, thereby supporting optimum decision making. Furthermore, company’s suite of digital technologies is helping our customers identify bottlenecks in their supply chains and smooth the flow of medical supplies across borders.

Looking ahead
The era of the metaverse is dawning, and although it’s still early days, we can expect the metaverse to find a wide range of use cases that enable pharma companies to improve their experiential offerings. The metaverse will also play a vital role in applications such as simulating terminal operations; carrying out container and vessel inspections; conducting immersive, online safety trainings; and creating Digital Twins where a virtual representation of real-world processes is created, which can help in addressing industrial and supply chain challenges and achieving substantial time and cost savings.

Metaverse can help a single operator monitor terminals from different parts of the world in real time through virtual reality. It can also enable pharma companies to virtually check out the facilities and capabilities of prospective logistics partners. From a user benefit standpoint, Metaverse can be used to demonstrate the correct way of administering a certain medicine.

In coming years, we could see specialisations emerging within the pharma supply chain. Clinical trials, for instance, require a specialised supply chain because the samples are highly sensitive and need careful management and handling.

Meanwhile, as the costs and complexities of healthcare and pharma logistics continue to rise, pharma companies need logistics partners who can mitigate any adverse impacts on their business and on patients. The ability to leverage relationships, network, experience and skills is crucial to ensure that access to quality healthcare remains equitable across the globe.

Partnering with logistics providers can yield significant benefits for pharma companies on both the business and the consumer health fronts. With the health of millions of humans at stake, there is no room for compromise or laxity.

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Lifescience technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace, and the clinical trials industry is no exception. The past few years have seen a steady rise in the adoption of decentralised clinical trials (DCTs) as an alternative to traditional clinical trials, and this trend is expected to continue in 2023 and beyond.

Decentralised clinical trials have gained popularity due to their ability to improve patient access, reduce costs, and accelerate study timelines. DCTs leverage digital technologies to enable patients to participate in clinical trials from the comfort of their own homes or nearby medical facilities, instead of having to travel to a centralised trial site. This has been particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, as traditional clinical trials were significantly impacted by lockdowns and social distancing measures.

However, as the adoption of DCTs increases, so do the challenges associated with implementing and managing them. One of the key challenges is the need for specialised software that can facilitate the remote collection, management, and analysis of clinical trial data.

In this article, we will explore the current state of decentralised clinical trial software and what we can expect to see in 2023.

The current state of decentralised clinical trials software

The software landscape for decentralised clinical trials is still relatively new and fragmented, with a variety of different vendors and platforms available.

These platforms typically offer a range of features, such as patient recruitment and retention tools, remote data capture, telemedicine capabilities, and data analytics. Some platforms also integrate with electronic health records (EHRs) and other systems to streamline data exchange and improve interoperability.

However, there are still some challenges associated with the adoption of DCT software, including regulatory compliance, data security and privacy, and patient engagement and retention.

In 2023, we can expect to see continued growth in the DCT software market, with new entrants and innovations in the space. Here are some of the trends we expect to see:

Increased adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML): Using AI and ML in clinical trials has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy of clinical trials by automating tasks such as data cleaning and analysis, identifying patient cohorts, and predicting trial outcomes. We can expect to see more DCT software vendors incorporating AI and ML capabilities into their platforms in 2023.

Greater emphasis on patient-centred design: Patient engagement and retention are critical factors in the success of DCTs, and software vendors are starting to recognise the importance of patient-centred design. In 2023, we can expect to see more DCT software platforms that prioritise patient experience and usability, with features such as patient portals, mobile apps, and real-time feedback mechanisms.

Integration with wearable devices and Internet of things (IoT) sensors: Wearable devices and IoT sensors have the potential to transform clinical trials by enabling remote monitoring of patient health and activity data. In 2023, we can expect to see more DCT software platforms that integrate with these devices and sensors to enable real-time data capture and analysis.

Improved interoperability and data sharing: Interoperability and data sharing are critical components of DCTs, and we can expect to see more software vendors focusing on these areas in 2023. This may include the development of standardised data models and APIs, as well as partnerships with EHR and other systems to improve data exchange and reduce duplication.

Decentralised clinical trials are becoming increasingly important in the development of new drugs and medical treatments. These trials offer several advantages over traditional clinical trials, including increased flexibility, reduced costs, and improved patient access and engagement.

In recent years, the use of AI has emerged as a powerful tool for optimising decentralised clinical trials. AI algorithms can help improve patient recruitment and selection, automate remote monitoring and data collection, and build predictive models that can optimise trial design and dosing regimens.

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Lupin Digital Health (LDH), an evidence-based digital therapeutics platform, has unveiled the results of a first-of-its-kind study in India, showing the efficacy of digital therapeutics (DTx) among patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and post-percutaneous coronary interventions. The study findings were presented at the India Live 2023 symposium in Chennai. LDH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lupin, recently launched its digital therapeutics platform, Lyfe, a heart care program that significantly reduces the risk of a heart attack and improves the quality of life for cardiac patients.

The one-year-long study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of LDH’s digital therapeutics platform, Lyfe, on cardiovascular events, rehospitalisation, medication adherence, vital sign monitoring, and lifestyle changes among heart patients. During the 90-day interim analysis, patients enrolled in the program demonstrated significant improvement, with 90 per cent adhering to the recommended medication, diet, and exercise regimen. 83.3 per cent of patients maintained their vital signs within the normal range, and no re-hospitalisations occurring during the first 30 days of enrolment.

“We are excited to share the positive outcomes of India’s first digital therapeutics study. The study’s outcomes showcase the effectiveness of our evidence-based and comprehensive heart care program in ensuring high adherence and low re-hospitalisation for patients,” said Sidharth Srinivasan, CEO, Lupin Digital Health.

“It’s gratifying to see that more than 300 leading cardiologists have already enrolled in our Lyfe platform, and we are confident that this number will multiply. We are dedicated to optimising the patient experience through enhancing doctor-patient collaboration, continuously monitoring health vitals, increasing patient awareness, and improving therapy adherence, all leading to better outcomes,” he further added.

The study results indicate that digital therapeutics programs will have a crucial role in patient care across the cardiology continuum, powered by technology. These results showcase a promising future for remote patient care in cardiology, utilising the potential of digital health to improve patients’ heart health.

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Raheel Shah, director, BDR Pharma analyses how cloud computing in the pharma sector has evolved to address significant privacy, security, and compliance issues that the sector faces and is now more than just a storage option

The use of cloud computing in the pharmaceutical industry has been steadily increasing in recent years. Cloud computing allows pharma companies to store large amounts of data securely and efficiently. This data can include everything from drug research and clinical trial results to patient data and regulatory compliance information.

Cloud computing is one such significant technology that has significantly altered the way businesses operate today. However, pharma companies typically adopt new technologies slowly due to compliance and regulation issues. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the pharma industry to reevaluate its operations. Pharma companies are increasingly utilising the power of advanced technologies to reduce costs and streamline their workloads because they are realising the true potential of digital technologies. Cloud computing in the pharma sector has evolved to address significant privacy, security, and compliance issues that the sector faces. It is now more than just a storage option.

In the pharma sector, cloud computing is driving innovation and efficiency in the following ways:

Data storage and management: Pharma companies generate a vast amount of data through research, clinical trials, and other activities. Storing and managing this data on the cloud can help companies save money on physical infrastructure, improve accessibility and collaboration among teams, and increase the security and privacy of sensitive data.

Collaboration: Cloud-based platforms can facilitate collaboration between different teams, including researchers, clinical trial managers, regulatory affairs, and marketing teams. This collaboration can help streamline the drug development process and accelerate the time to market.

Remote work: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of remote work, and the cloud has made it possible for pharma companies to continue their operations despite the pandemic. With cloud-based solutions, teams can work remotely, access critical data and applications, and collaborate with their colleagues from anywhere in the world.

Improved scalability: Cloud solutions can scale up or down based on the needs of the company. This scalability allows pharma companies to respond to changes in demand, such as spikes in clinical trial data, without incurring significant costs.

Predictive analytics: With the help of cloud-based analytics tools, pharmaceutical companies can leverage machine learning and other AI technologies to analyse large data sets, identify patterns, and make more informed decisions. This can lead to faster and more accurate drug discovery and development, as well as more targeted marketing and sales efforts.

In summary, cloud utilisation can help pharma companies improve collaboration, reduce costs, accelerate drug development, and leverage advanced analytics technologies. By adopting cloud-based solutions, pharma companies can gain a competitive advantage and transform the way they operate.

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The contemporary drug repurposing techniques using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) are gaining traction in the pharma industry to not only minimise the cost and time but also to bring down the risk in the process of retargeting drugs for viral and other rare diseases, says GlobalData.

Kiran Raj, Practice Head of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData, comments, “The pharma industry has seen AI-augmented approaches to repurpose drugs against COVID-19 infections like Eli Lilly’s Olumiant, which further increases the strategic collaboration appetite of pharma companies to develop computational approaches that can de-risk the systematic identification of drug repurposing leads.”

Abhishek Paul Choudhury, Senior Disruptive Tech Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “AI is advancing drug repurposing by mining huge biomedical datasets for hidden patterns and evidence. This can maximise the drug asset values as the technology analyses massive amounts of data to find the existing drugs used to treat other conditions by developing a specific treatment for an underserved disease or a particular indication.”

The Innovation Explorer database of GlobalData’s Disruptor Intelligence Center highlights the key company collaborations in pharma to advance AI-powered drug repurposing techniques.

In January 2023, US-based companies Medable and Every Cure partnered to use drug repurposing to accelerate the discovery of treatments for rare diseases such as aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency. The duo aims to identify novel use cases with Medable’s specialised software and services as Every Cure plans to scale up an innovative treatment to find therapies for around 9,000 disorders, many of which have no federally approved treatment.

In April 2022, Geneva’s DNDi made a non-commercial collaboration with London’s BenevolentAI to formulate a list of potential biological targets (proteins that can be targeted by a potential drug) and drug repurposing candidates that could de-escalate the severity of dengue infection. The project intends to combine BenevolentAI’s drug discovery platform with DNDi’s acumen and global network of dengue partners to enable researchers to decode insights that human reasoning alone would not have been able to uncover.

In February 2022, UK’s Healx obtained exclusive license rights from NY-based Ovid Therapeutics to investigate gaboxadol, also known as 4,5,6,7 tetrahydroisoxazolo(5,4-c)pyridin-3-ol (THIP), as part of potential combination therapy for Fragile X syndrome, as well as a treatment for other indications. Healx, according to the agreement, will find an optimal treatment for the condition by combining gaboxadol with other compounds identified by the Healnet AI platform, including HLX-0201.

Choudhury concludes, “Drug repurposing is becoming increasingly popular as AI advances to offer new insights into disease drug targets while increasing the success rate of clinical development trials. The process will eventually provide patients with faster access to new treatments and answers to rare disease symptoms, thereby potentially saving lives.”

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