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What’s driving the natural language processing revolution in pharma and life sciences

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Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies are faced with a constant stream of new data flowing into often siloed information systems. About 80% of that information exists in unstructured text that is difficult to extract and use, despite its paramount importance in driving clinical and commercial outcomes.

As a result, these organizations find themselves increasingly overwhelmed with volumes of inaccessible data. At the same time, researchers and data scientists lack effective search tools to find the right information in this “big data” tsunami, causing them to miss opportunities to enhance patient safety, improve clinical trial design, identify previously undetected biomarkers and better understand the voice of the customer.

To overcome the limitations of time-consuming, manual searches through mountains of data, pharma and life sciences companies are looking to artificial…

How AI technology can democratize clinical trials in oncology

While drug developers continue to develop promising investigational cancer drugs, conducting clinical research in oncology remains difficult. Here’s how AI-enabled software can help.

AI image courtesy of Pixabay

The statistics on inadequate trial recruitment and endemic challenges in oncology clinical trials are well known. They have only gotten worse over the past 20 years. While the number of cancer treatments has nearly quadrupled in that time period from 421 to 1,489, cancer drugs take 30–40% longer than other indications to gain approval and 80% of oncology clinical trials fail to meet enrollment timelines. Over this period, trial complexity has also increased due to more comprehensive trial designs (e.g., multi-cohort, basket and umbrella studies), precision medicine studies requiring gene, RNA or protein biomarker assays and the increasing quantity and sophistication of desired endpoints.

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Decentralized clinical trials continue to gain ground

[Photo by Laura James from Pexels]

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to fundamental changes in how pharmaceutical companies and physicians interact with patients.

And yet — for all of the talk about digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) and decentralized clinical trials in medicine in recent years — the adoption of those concepts has lagged. “The reality is that we’ve gone after shiny objects in many places,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, chief medical officer of Sharecare (Atlanta, Ga.).

The situation is, however, swiftly changing thanks to the pandemic. Some 44% of pharma, biotech and clinical research professionals have already adopted remote patient monitoring (RPM) or plan to do so in the next 12 months, according to a recent survey from VivaLNK (Campbell, Calif.). Almost two-thirds (65%) of survey respondents reported the pandemic was the primary driver of RPM adoption.

Physicians have w…

AI-aided colon cancer tech gets FDA nod

Cosmo Pharmaceuticals announced today that it received marketing authorization for its GI Genius AI-based lesion detecting system.

GI Genius is an intelligent endoscopy system that uses AI/machine learning to detect lesions in the colon such as polyps or suspected tumors in real-time during a colonoscopy, according to a news release.

The device, which received FDA approval through the de novo pathway, is compatible with all endoscopes. Cosmo is the sole manufacturer, while Medtronic is the exclusive worldwide distributor.

Made up of hardware and software designed to highlight portions of the colon, the device uses AI algorithms to identify regions of interest where it may detect a potential lesion. GI Genius generates markers, which appear as green squares and are accompanied by a short, low-volume sound. It superimposes them on the video from the endoscope camera when a potential lesion is identified.

The device’s signals alert a clinician …

FDA clears Activ Surgical hardware for enhanced surgical visualization

[Image courtesy of Activ Surgical]Activ Surgical announced today that it’s won FDA 510(k) clearance for ActivSight, the company’s intraoperative imaging module for enhanced surgical visualization.

Todd Usen, the Boston-based company’s CEO, described the clearance as “big news” in a LinkedIn post. “This clearance gets us one step closer to bringing our technology to ORs around the world and enabling real-time and best-in-class surgery for everyone,” Usen said.

The hardware-agnostic imaging module provides surgeons with real-time intraoperative visual data and imaging. Thirteen major healthcare systems around the world have so far committed to ActivSight’s initial launch, according to Activ Surgical. The company expects to launch ActivSight during the second half of 2021.

Activ Surgical plans for ActivSight to power its next product — ActivInsights. Included in the ActivEdge software platform, ActivInsights will…

Google, Varian partner on AI to boost cancer radiation therapy

Varian (NYSE: VAR) announced today that it is working with Google Cloud to build an AI-based diagnostic platform.

The companies’ focus is on AI models for organ segmentation—a crucial, labor-intensive step in radiation oncology that can often turn into a clinical workflow bottleneck. Organ segmentation can take hours per patient. It involves identifying the organs and tissues in diagnostic images that must be targeted or protected during radiation therapy.

Varian is using Google Cloud AI Platform’s Neural Architecture Search (NAS) technology to create an AI segmentation engine that it’s training — using Varian’s proprietary treatment planning image data — to create customized auto-segmentation models for organs in the body. Varian plans to incorporate the new models into its treatment planning software tools in cancer centers worldwide.

“At Varian, we are working towards a world without fear of cancer, where high-quality can…

MIT researchers tout new machine learning technique for assessing drug molecules

MIT researchers have developed a machine learning-based technique to more quickly calculate the binding affinity of a drug molecule (represented in pink) with a target protein (the circular structure). [Image courtesy of MIT News]

MIT researchers are touting a new machine-learning technique called DeepBAR that can quickly calculate the binding affinities between drug candidates and their targets.

DeepBAR produces precise calculations in a fraction of the time compared to previous, according to the researchers. They think the software could potentially accelerate drug discovery and protein engineering.

“Our method is orders of magnitude faster than before, meaning we can have drug discovery that is both efficient and reliable,” Bin Zhang, an MIT chemistry professor and a co-author of a new paper describing the technique, said in an MIT news release.

The research, which NIH partially funded, appea…

How precision drug-dosing supports individualized treatment

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The concept of precision drug-dosing has gained ground in recent years, given its ability to boost efficacy and curb side effects. Yet imprecise dosing regimens continue to be common for many drugs, leading to significant rates of adverse drug reactions (ADRs).

“ADRs are one of the top ten causes of death in the developed world,” said Sirj Goswami, CEO and co-founder of InsightRX. “More than two million serious ADRs occur each year, representing a cost burden of $136 billion annually. More than half of these events are preventable and are dose-related,” Goswami said.

In the following interview, Goswami shares his perspective on how precision dosing can optimize dosing in clinical trials and improve real-world drug performance. He also touches on the promise of machine learning to drive further dosing-related advances.

Drug Discovery & Development: How do yo…

Philips, DiA partner on AI-based applications for ultrasound

Philips enhances ultrasound with AI-based image quantification [Image courtesy of Philips]Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) announced today that it has formed a strategic partnership with DiA Imaging Analysis to incorporate DiA’s AI library of automated solutions with Philips ultrasound.

Be’er Sheva, Israel–based DiA’s AI-enabled 2D ultrasound applications have FDA clearance and a CE Mark. The applications are geared toward reducing variability and increasing the efficiency and accuracy of ultrasound analysis.

“Through our strategic partnership with DiA Imaging Analysis, we can deliver unprecedented diagnostic confidence and operational efficiency to point-of-care ultrasound imaging, as well as widen access to high quality and timely care both inside and outside of hospitals,” said Kees Wesdorp, chief business leader of Precision Diagnosis at Philips.

DiA Hila Goldman Aslan described Philips’ ultrasound devices as an “ideal …

iRhythm Zio 10 times more effective in identifying Afib, study says

iRhythm Technologies (NSDQ:IRTC) today touted study results that found its Zio device was more effective in detecting Afib than standard care.

Published in JAMA Cardiology, the SCREEN-AF study showed that the use of Zio by iRhythm led to a tenfold increase in the detection of Afib when compared to patients receiving standard clinical care. One of every 20 patients in the heart monitoring group was found to have a new diagnosis of Afib and, as a result, 75% of such patients were subsequently prescribed blood thinner medication to prevent against strokes, according to a news release.

San Francisco-based iRhythm said the study supports the use of Zio as a screening tool for the early detection of Afib, as the system was well-tolerated and effective while enabling some patients to receive anticoagulant therapy.

News of the system’s effectiveness in the study is another boost for the company, which, in December 2020, announced that the Zio XT ambulatory…

Why focusing on the quantity of pharma innovation is misleading

Photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash

Since the early 2000s, pundits have lamented that there is an innovation crisis in the pharmaceutical industry. One of the most common reasons given is the challenge of bringing new drugs to market.

The U.S. Government Accounting Office concluded in 20016 that the “productivity of [the pharma industry’s] research and development expenditures has been declining.” The cost of developing a new drug frequently tops $1 billion, and scores of drug candidates never make it to market.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened society’s appreciation for the pharmaceutical industry’s innovation, the concept of an innovation crisis hasn’t gone away.

Many of the arguments purporting such a crisis focus on the quality of pharmaceutical innovation rather than its quantity, said Troy Groetken, a shareholder, board member, and executive committee member at the intellectual prop…

BioSig, Mayo Clinic announce AI development partnership

The Pure EP system [Image courtesy of BioSig Technologies]BioSig Technologies (NSDQ:BSGM) will work with the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research to develop next-gen, AI-powered software for its Pure EP system, which is meant to take electrophysiology to the next level.

The Mayo Clinic has already been an important investor and development partner for the Westport, Conn.–based company. BioSig signed a 10-year collaboration agreement with Mayo Clinic in March 2017, signing three new patent and know-how license agreements with the Mayo foundation in November 2019.

Get the full story on our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.