From smartphones to chatbots, the technology works itself and leads our lives in a new direction that we usually entitled “Digital Lives.” AI seems ubiquitous, becoming a part of our purchases and our daily movement. After going through an in-depth analysis of AI in several industries, we have realized that this self-learning technology is also making a crucial space in the pharma industry.
According to Tractica, the global artificial intelligence software market is forecast to grow from $10.1 billion in 2018 to $126 billion by 2025. In this fast-paced world, where big companies are adopting the new Big Data & AI technologies, the pharmaceutical industry is also in the same race.
The pharmaceutical industry right now is facing several challenges ranging from the cost of developing a new drug cost to bringing it to the hands of customers. This whole process goes through several steps that decline its overall speed and increases its cost. Thanks to AI technology! It seems a blessing and plays a great role in enhancing the overall working of the industry.
AI is like a light in a tunnel that helps explore the unmet medical needs of the healthcare sector, identify new diseases, and develop the new drug accordingly. Not only in the present but this buzzword, “AI” will be going to the future of the pharmaceutical industry.
In this piece of content, we have discussed the essential role AI will be going to play in the pharmaceutical industry. Before we start, let’s know the current situation of the pharmaceutical business.
Know the Current State of the Pharmaceutical Business
Besides, the recent pharma market research report by The Business Research Company stated that the global pharmaceuticals market was worth $934.8 billion in 2017 and will reach $1170 billion in 2021, growing at 5.8%. The slower growth rate of the two large healthcare segments, i.e., medical equipment and healthcare services, is a big matter of concern.
Not only this, another study on pharma gained our attention showing that the average launching cost of a new drug has increased from $1.2 billion to close to $2 billion, which is an increase of 67% (hard to ignore figures. Right?) This major rise in the cost affected the profits in the last few years. Even after facing several challenges, including government regulations, pricing competition, and changing health insurance guidelines, such a decline in profits giving researchers or experts reason to worry. Besides these facts or figures, healthcare as a whole is growing at over 7 percent a year.
Take A Glance At The Role of AI in the Pharma Industry
Pharmaceutical companies are already taking advantage of self-learning technology, AI. But the technology is not yet fully trusted by everyone; after all, it’s a machine developed by humans. At the same time, you can’t deny the fact that AI-enhanced platforms are playing a great role in helping humanity and transforming the whole pharma industry to a great extent. Today, the healthcare sector welcomes this new technology with open arms. Wanna know how?
From providing an assistant to doctors while treatments or surgeries to accurate & quick diagnoses to avoid the malpractice risk of any given procedure, the healthcare industry embraces AI technology and enjoys several benefits associated with it. AI-enabled robotics is a perfect example of AI involvement in healthcare. This technology is very well known for providing safer, more accurate, and less invasive outcomes on the operating table.
AI in the pharma industry takes the unmet needs of the healthcare sector into consideration and develops the solutions accordingly. Gone are those days when a drug discovery takes so many years and investment to bring it into the market. This modern and human-built technology says goodbye to the traditional drug discovery approach that eats a lot of time and money that further leads to a lower success rate. Several pharma companies have already adopted AI in their research program. Yes, that’s true!
Below, we have covered how companies are benefiting from the AI-based platforms at different stages of the pharmaceutical process.
- Boost Success Trial Rates
From drug development to bringing it successfully in the market, the whole process requires a lot of time and millions of dollars of investment, but at the same time, there is no success guarantee. Right? Imagine when you predict your success early, you would be able to save both time and money poured into the development. But how would you be going to predict it? The advanced AI technology provides complete assistance in the clinical trial process, focusing on, making the process faster, reliable, and successful. In order to meet these goals, several AI-enabled software is used. This software help in finding early-stage errors and focusing on more critical aspects in the clinical trial process that further boosts the success trial-rates. Resolving errors reduces the wastage of time and helps in increasing more efficiency in the process.
- Identify New Applications for Existing Drugs
Next on our list that is pointing towards the bright future of AI in the pharmaceutical is the ease of identifying new applications for existing drugs. AI technology has an impressive ability to spot patterns in large datasets that can be difficult for human researchers. This technology is used for finding the possible connections between drugs and ailments that helps in identifying the new uses for existing drugs.
According to a report in August 2020 by Globaldata, AI is boosting the use of drug repurposing. The term drug repurposing means identifying the already approved drug that can be reformulated for a different application. AI plays a great role in drug repurposing as it helps in data evaluation in order to match new targets. Healnet, a complex database system developed by Healx, is a perfect example of it. It uses machine learning and AI technology for drug repurposing.
Even in this COVID time, BenevolentAI, a research group in London, brings an AI-enabled drug discovery platform into play in identifying existing drugs that already disrupt a virus’s entry point pathways to look at ways of inhibiting COVID-19 bonding. They have identified an approved drug, Baricitinib, which the researchers are predicting can stop the COVID-19 infection of human cells.
- AI Improves the Manufacturing Process
Yes, it does. When it comes to the development and production process, this self-driven technology of AI (Artificial Intelligence) enhances the overall processing by keeping an eye-check on quality, measuring the design-time, efficient use of resources, reducing material waste, performing maintenance, and a lot more things that probably a human fail to hit. This technology helps in increasing the efficiency of production in order to bring faster output.
- AI Involvement in Drug Development
The introduction of AI in pharmaceuticals has totally transformed the way it works. Nowadays, companies have adopted all-new self-learning AI platforms, including Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Design of Experiment (DoE) that work great in determining the inter-parameters interactions and providing full support in composition and process optimization. These technologies are developing a quality drug, keeping a check on several quality parameters.
In January 2020, a British biotech company, Exscientia, in partnership with Japanese pharma company Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, announced that they had developed a new drug to treat OCD using AI technology. AI has cut off several difficult tasks that usually take years in the traditional drug development approach. These reasons allow pharma to welcome AI use in drug development and reduce the burdens that this industry has to face at several stages of the process.
- AI in Clinical Monitoring
Tencent Holdings, along with Medopad, has developed AI algorithms for those patients who are suffering from chronic Parkinson’s disease. The AI involvement in the treatment led us to several benefits. This AI algorithm basically monitors the movement of patients via a smartphone camera and determines the symptoms.
Current Challenges of AI Application in the Pharmaceutical Industry
The above-listed points clearly show that AI will be going to play a crucial role in the pharma industries. It has emerged as an effective tool that has made pharma processing easier and more smooth that results in an increased success rate in the drug discovery phase & its market establishment.
But at the same time, there are several companies that are still using the same traditional approach. Here the biggest challenge lies. Such companies need IT up-gradation and adopt AI and machine-learning platforms, believing in the power of AI for effective and efficient outcomes. And this can be possible by spreading awareness, running projects, showing how AI involvement can enhance the overall working of the pharma industry.
Conclusion
This post is all about how AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology will transform the pharma industry in the future. Probably, you find all your answers in this piece of content. With the above info, you can conclude that the scope of AI in the pharma industry is far beyond the imagination. Even researchers find AI involvement a great move towards humanity.
Author Bio:
Ravi Sharma, CEO of Webomaze - SEO Company in Chandigarh is a highly enthusiastic entrepreneur. He has got a great grip on the idea of effective eCommerce Strategies, SEO processes, and tactics which are vital for virtual exposure. He is a fun-loving person and a keen traveler who always hunts to find adventure in new places.
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