Artificial Intelligence: the pharma's industry game changer

Artificial intelligence has begun to transform medicine. “AI is not a promise, it’s already a reality. And if there’s one field where it’s essential, it’s cancer,” says Frédéric Collet, president of the AI and Cancer cluster, created two years ago, and ambassador of the France 2030 Health plan. The more research we do in cancer, the narrower and more sophisticated the databases on which we can make predictions become. At the same time, cancer is also a field in which we collect a huge mass of data from anatomopathology, radiology and MRI, as well as from reports that can be processed using large language models (LLM)…” He continues. Diagnosis is improved and faster thanks to the abundance of quality data. Ultimately, doctors will also gain in knowledge. “To stay informed in the therapeutic era in which he works, an oncologist would have to read 25 hours a day. Artificial intelligence can help him absorb this mass of information,” continues Frédéric Collet. AI is also creating new expectations and new uses among patients. “In the United States, where access to a doctor is complicated and costly, more and more patients are asking Chat GPT about their symptoms,” observes the former president of LEEM and Novartis France.

In the future, more and more patients will want to diagnose themselves using symptom checkers, whose reliability is astonishing. The adoption of AI will, however, involve winning the challenge of trust, with scientific and regulatory evaluation of these solutions, but also economic support.

The importance of a strategy

The pharmaceutical sector is also being hard hit by the emergence of AI. “Artificial intelligence is changing the way the pharmaceutical industry works, and could help them meet all the challenges they face,” says Dr. Andrée Bates, Chairman of Eularis.

In R&D, AI should help speed products to market and reduce their costs, the digital expert continues. “In regulatory and medical affairs, we can have wider and faster access to the market, and we can also expect to improve the bottom line in sales and marketing through AI.”

Manufacturers will be able to exploit AI in many areas, but will first need to “determine a strategy”, says Andrée Bates. It’s necessary to look at your company’s strengths and weaknesses, and see what makes sense for you,” she advised participants at the Life consulting event. You can’t just copy what other companies are doing, otherwise you won’t have a competitive advantage.”
Digital twins, based on AI’s exploitation of data, point to great advances in the near future. “We could all have a digital twin in the next ten years that will enable us to predict diseases, test drug dosages for each of us,” prognosticates the Eularis executive.

Digital twins, based on the use of data by AI, promise great advances in the near future. “We could all have a digital twin within the next ten years that will enable us to predict diseases, test drug dosages for each of us,” prognosticates the Eularis executive.

AI and pharma, the beginning of the story

AI could be a valuable ally in exploiting the data available to pharmaceutical groups, confirms Michelangelo Canzoneri, Global head smart manufacturing Merck Group. “Large companies have a lot of data, but they don’t necessarily know about it, because they operate in silos and the data is not structured to be exploited effectively”, observes the MIT lecturer and member of the Health World Economic forum.

AI could be a valuable ally in exploiting the data available to pharmaceutical groups, confirms Michelangelo Canzoneri, Global head smart manufacturing Merck Group. “Large companies have a lot of data, but they don’t necessarily know about it, because they operate in silos and the data is not structured to be exploited effectively”, observes the MIT lecturer and member of the Health World Economic forum.

Above all, it’s important to identify the purpose for which you want to exploit AI, stresses the expert. “It still takes 12 to 15 years to bring a drug to market. It costs us up to three billion dollars, and the probability of successfully bringing the drug to market is 5%,” says Michelangelo Canzoneri. Do we want to go faster, cut costs, improve the supply chain?

To embrace AI, industry players will need to gain digital expertise. “80% of manufacturers are at maturity level 2, on a scale of 1 (working on paper) to 5 (fully automated procedure). Level 2 means that we have just moved from paper to digital work and computerized systems.”

The pharma industry is only at the beginning of its history with AI, and will have to learn how to exploit it. You can buy a bicycle, but you can’t learn to ride a bike,” says Michelangelo Canzoneri. For digital, it’s the same: it’s a learning environment.” The expert cites the example of his company, Merck, which set up a digital twin of the supply chain to predict stock levels and how to optimize them, which cut upstream process development time by 50%.
The arrival of AI isn’t just a question of technological transformation; above all, it implies the involvement of people. “AI doesn’t destroy their work, it enables them to work better,” he concludes.

To conclude these speeches, Jean-Luc Taborin announced the launch of a major survey and report on the subject of “How AI can reduce patients’ access time to innovative medical solutions”. See you in^Q4 2024 to find out the findings.

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Combining local expertise with a global reach covering more than 150 countries, PLG is the life sciences industry’s leading strategic partner for the development, market introduction and lifecycle management of product portfolios, as well as, through its ProductLife Consulting Business Unit, support for the strategic and digital transformation of Healthcare companies.