The COVID-19 crisis plunged the world into a deep loss and tragedy. But if we can point one upside through all the pain and grief the disease brought, it’s that the medical and pharmaceutical industries are seeing a massive revamp. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and because the pandemic necessitated the need for a cure and a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, researchers, scientists, and corporations across the globe worked hard and utilized new technologies to come up with a new vaccine. The business world also played its part as the world’s biggest companies and members of the 1 percent donated much of their resources to research and development as their way of joining the fight against COVID-19.
Some new tech tools used in the pharmaceutical industry now include additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and other industry 4.0 technologies. Here are some ways these tech tools are changing the world of drug development.
AI and machine learning
Without AI and machine learning, we might have witnessed a much slower development of drugs that can fight the virus that causes COVID-19. Machine learning and AI Have already been aiding the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries for years. Still, their predictive and data analytics recently helped analyze patterns in data sets for researchers to gain a deep insight into the benefits, implications, and success rates of newly-developed drugs.
One example of this is the USP dissolution test, which is a key part of testing new drugs or medications. While a more traditional dissolution test can take more time and thus delays progress and consumes more resources during the drug development process, a USP dissolution test is much quicker, cost-effective, and boasts of predictive results that are up to the standards of modern drug development methodology.
Instead of just providing patients and consumers with the medication, many pharmaceutical companies are now employing the “around the pill” digital medicine strategy, which aims to help patients around the world understand their medication and health through a digital package. Instead of just developing, manufacturing, and selling drugs, big pharmaceutical companies are now also working hard to ensure that their consumers are fully informed about the drugs they’re about to take.
These packages come in the form of health apps and digital devices that greatly improve the customer experience. By leveraging these technological tools, pharmaceutical companies are not just using a traditional medication package insert; they’re also helping patients improve their medication management.
While many diseases have been around for a while, and we need to continue studying what makes them similar in most cases, we also can’t deny that no two people are the same. This is where precision medicine comes in: It’s an approach that acknowledges that there are plenty of individual variables in genes, lifestyle, and environment for every person. Because we’re all different, our bodies might react differently to various drugs, and precision medicine addresses this reality by giving personalized treatments to different patients.
Because pharmaceutical companies are now using this strategy of developing drugs to target specific genes or people, they also gain a much more in-depth insight into diseases and how to treat them since they have a bigger pool of cases to study. And through this strategy, biomarkers also emerged, providing researchers with a big, revolutionary step towards finding a cure for cancer.
From the very beginning, blockchain technology was developed to improve traceability and transparency in handling finances across the world. In the pharmaceutical industry, it’s being utilized to identify counterfeit drugs and place them in categories without the need for third-party involvement. Another way blockchain technology can aid the pharmaceutical industry is by streamlining the management of supply chains. It can help with visibility and ensure that all parties comply with various regulations, especially since blockchain is more secure and immutable. It can also help in tracking drug distribution and gaining insight into the details of various drugs.
Since time immemorial, technology and medicine have worked hand-in-hand to ensure that people can receive the help that they need. The world is no different in 2021 when various diseases ravage the world and the most vulnerable. With the swift development of the COVID-19 vaccine, we learned that as long as scientists, researchers, governments, and private organizations work together, we can achieve what is often considered implausible. We might continue to gain great strides in curing diseases that we have no cure for right now.