innovation Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

SandboxAQ, bearing Alphabet’s DNA, eyes quantum-inspired breakthroughs in drug discovery

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Emerging as a spinoff from Alphabet’s experimental division X, SandboxAQ recently pulled back the curtain on its latest endeavor — the biopharma molecular simulation division AQBioSim. Attracting investments from significant figures like former Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt, who is now the chair of Sandbox AQ, and Salesforce.com Inc. founder Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures investment fund. Other backers include T. Rowe Price, Guggenheim Partners and Breyer Capital.

Now, AQBioSim aims to streamline the research and development process with quantum-inspired computing, potentially contributing to the development of treatments for critical diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The company says its technology could shave years off the discovery process.

Earlier this year, SandboxAQ, raised $500 million in funding, aiming to equip businesses with the neces…

CGT demands vision, partnership and patient-centricity to transform healthcare

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As personalized medicine continues to progress, cell and gene therapy (CGT) development is poised to enable tremendous medical breakthroughs. Unlike traditional treatments which merely manage symptoms, CGT could treat the root biological cause of many diseases: the faulty genes.

“The cell and gene therapy space is truly exciting. What this ultimately means for patients and caregivers, and our ability to play an important part within this paradigm, is exhilarating,” said Dr. Panteli Theocharous, the global vice president and cell and gene therapy strategy lead at PPD.

With more than 20 years of experience in the pharma and biotech industries, Theocharous provides guidance on developing CGTs. He accentuates the importance of partnerships, data-driven approaches and patient-centricity in overcoming challenges.

Yet the path forward is filled with obstacles. In 2021, cell and gene …

How pharma firms stack up in terms of innovation

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Tthe pharma industry has ramped up its ability to innovate in the past couple of years. Many firms in the sector have retooled operations, rethought clinical trials and accelerated the ability to commercialize new drugs.

Clarivate’s Top 100 Global Innovators 2022 report, however, cited only two pharma companies. Clarivate also projects that the level of innovation of the pharma sector will fall relative to other notable industries from 2020 to 2025.

Part of the reason for that prediction is the trend of increased collaboration in the sector makes it more difficult for individual pharma companies to stand out from the pack, according to Ed White, chief analyst and VP of IP and innovation research at Clarivate.

The pharma research ecosystem is considerably more fragmented now than it was 10 to 20 years ago.

“It’s difficult for us to say …