“An exciting time for pharma”– Pharma IQ’s panel on the future of drug discovery

Artificial intelligence to predict health outcomes and the drive to improve diversity in clinical research will be two major factors influencing the pharma sector in the future, according to our recent panel of industry experts.

Pharma IQ's Power List 2022: In conversation with pharma's top leaders, featured Fiona Thomas, Chief Medical Officer at KPMG UK, Ciara Kennedy, CEO of Sorriso Pharmaceuticals, and Regina Fritsche Danielson, SVP and Global Head of Research and Early Development for Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism at AstraZeneca.

During the hour-long webinar, they discussed current challenges in drug discovery as well as the factors that will have the biggest impact on the development of new medicines in the next ten years and beyond.

Thomas, who has 22 years’ experience as a physician and played a key role in securing reimbursement for girls in the UK to be vaccinated against high-risk HPV, spoke about the need for pharma to work more closely with healthcare practitioners to improve patient outcomes, through better education and access to patient data.

“We want healthcare professionals to understand the benefits of new therapies and patients to feel empowered to understand their treatment,” she said. “Having the right data to file is obviously critical, however there should also be a clear patient profile for any new product within the treatment pathway as well as a route to reimbursement.”

The future of pharma will be heavily influenced by AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have already transformed the way research and drug development are carried out, and the panelists explained that these technologies are opening up many new possibilities for innovation in drug development. “ML algorithms capable of providing insight and predictions can assist healthcare practitioners, delivering risk factors, diagnoses and treatments for patients earlier on in their care pathway and disease progression,” Thomas said.

“What is really exciting are the potential applications in real world data sets to predict patient outcomes with certain treatment options at the individual level,” she added.

Improving diversity in clinical trials and access to medication is vital

The need to improve diversity and inclusion in clinical trials so they better represent global populations was discussed at length. The panel agreed that the Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the disparities in health outcomes for different patient populations, and that addressing this will bring benefits to future drug development and patient outcomes.

The panelists were asked how AI and predictive models could be used to further this goal, and how to ensure algorithms don’t mimic existing biases. Danielson, who has led important breakthroughs in regenerative medicine and precision medicine in cardiovascular, renal and metabolism biopharmaceuticals at AstraZeneca, responded that the data fed into predictive models is ultimately provided by the scientists carrying out the research. Therefore, the same push among scientists to drive inclusion in clinical research should be reflected in the algorithms used to analyze samples.

Challenges for drug development

Current barriers to drug discovery were also discussed. Kennedy, who has helped bring drugs for Alagille syndrome and fibromyalgia to market, explained how different sized companies can tackle different development stages. “In early-stage drug development flexible, nimble organizations that can move quickly may be better suited to evaluate critical experiments,” she said. “Whereas larger pharma companies have historically been and will likely continue to be better suited to execute on classical Phase III programs.”

Cuts to investment and the current labor shortage were also identified as challenges, with all three panelists noting the difficulties of finding the right candidates in the current climate.

A potential solution is encouraging people to get excited by the possibilities of scientific research, with Danielson commenting: “At AstraZeneca we have many young people coming to us because they are excited about the science and about what we do,” she said, before adding, “it is a very exciting time for pharma right now.”

Quick links

• Pharma IQ’s Power List 2022
• Driving diversity in clinical trials
• How Sanofi is using AI to accelerate time to market for new drugs

Get exclusive access to member-only articles, reports, videos, interviews, webinars and other premium content from industry experts and thought leaders by signing up to Pharma IQ here.