Digital Eraof Drug Development

The Indian pharma sector needs more actionable and optimised drug development and delivery models driven by data and new-age technology to provide greater value and enhance outcomes

- Lakshmipriya Nair

As the pressure to reduce costs and demonstrate greater value intensifies, it is becoming increasingly evident that India Pharma Inc can continue on a growth path only by improving its R&D efficiency. And, a radical reconstruction of its existing drug development ecosystem has emerged as one of the most urgent steps in this direction.

So, how is the industry tackling the aspects that complicate and impede drug development? The answer is clear. By harnessing new digital technologies such as automation, AI and IoT to disrupt clinical research and jumpstart the transformation of the drug development lifecycle, from discovery to clinical proof of concept (PoC).

Dawn of a tech renaissance….. As the industry grapples with falling levels of productivity, drying R&D pipeline, increasing trial complexities and greater regulatory scrutiny, both domestic players and MNCs in this sector are increasingly banking on technology to streamline the pharma value chain by gaining higher economic value for newer treatments, augmenting drug approval rates, enhancing efficiencies and lowering the associated costs of drug development.

Dr Ajay Kumar Handa, President, Research & Development from Cadila Pharmaceuticals explains, “With the increase in the regulations in the pharma market and the evolution of the pharma market, drug development and drug discovery has evolved as well. Therefore, automation and digitisation are an integrated part of our processes. For e.g. use of technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate pharma R&D.”

So, let’s examine the major transformations being ushered by these technologies.