COVID-19: How AI partnership is helping our search for new therapies

eCMSadmin — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 09:00:00 +0000

Erica Puntel, US Corporate Affairs

eCMSadmin Wed 23/09/2020 - 11:00

The scale of the pandemic challenge demands a collective response. That is why ��ֳ� is partnering with Microsoft AI for Health and others to accelerate drug discovery.

To play our part in the global fight against COVID-19, our scientists have been using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify molecules that counteract replication in the SARS-CoV-2 virus. AI is one of the pillars of ��ֳ�’s Digital Business Transformation – to take large amounts of data and apply algorithms to drug designs in the pursuit of new therapies.

Generating initial drug designs using ��ֳ� proprietary technology requires a substantial amount of compute power. Running against time, we reached out to Microsoft’s AI for Health grant program to secure support and partner with their technology experts in order to have the greatest patient value and impact.

The response was swift and positive. On the very next day, the grant was awarded and our teams began working on Microsoft Azure – a cloud-based platform that offers significant computing power.

Thanks to this collaboration, we managed to do in three days what might otherwise have taken six months. This computational design combined with ��ֳ� Medicinal Chemistry efforts has resulted in valuable molecules that are moving forward with research into their efficacy against COVID-19.

COVID ‘Moonshot’

This work supports our participation in the COVID Moonshot: a collaboration between biopharma, academia, technology companies, chemical vendors, and individual contributors aiming to find solutions to the COVID pandemic.

��ֳ� has volunteered employee time in the areas of Medicinal Chemistry, CADD and IT to contribute new drug design ideas in addition to prioritising more than 13,000 crowdsourced submissions.

This work fits with ��ֳ�’s Digital Business Transformation – a strategic priority to advance digitalization and transform drug discovery for the future using digital technologies. We are committed to utilizing transformative digital tools that will improve the lives of people with severe diseases and to play our part in overcoming COVID-19.

We remain convinced that new digital tools and partnerships can help us to deliver new knowledge, new solutions, and new medicines – and help make ��ֳ� sustainable for the future.

��ֳ� Contributors to the Moonshot project (core team members in bold)
Ben Cossins, Vladas Oleinikovas, Antonija Kuzmanic, Yogesh Sabnis, Jiye Shi and Mark Calmiano (Computational Chemistry), Adam Smalley, Matt Selby, Luis Castro, Jag Heer and Eric Jnoff (Medicinal Chemistry), Dan Chapman, and Bhushan Bonde and Pieter Deurinck (IT Early Solutions), John Thompson (IPD).

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Osteoporosis care: bringing innovation to those that will benefit the most

eCMSadmin — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Osteoporosis care: bringing innovation to those that will benefit the most

Scott Fleming, Global Communications & Company Reputation

eCMSadmin Mon 06/04/2020 - 02:00

Innovation drives our search for new therapies that bring value to patients. However, for innovative treatments to have maximum impact on patient care, they must be readily available to those who need them most.

In the third of a series of thought leader articles by ��ֳ� personnel, in partnership with the Health Europa journal, we look at the adoption of innovation in osteoporosis care and management. Our goal is to ensure that the needs of the growing number of people at risk of fractures are highlighted.

Consider the fact: almost half of patients who suffer an osteoporotic hip fracture have experienced a previous osteoporotic fracture, but most of these patients did not receive treatment that could have reduced their risk of hip fracture. This represents a significant missed opportunity to prevent painful broken bones that can impact quality of life.

Innovation should focus on early diagnosis and prevention of future fractures; too many patients remain undiagnosed and untreated today, disconnected from the healthcare professionals who can help manage their disease, meaning they remain at risk of fractures that can lead to disability, loss of quality of life, and premature death.

The risk of fragility fractures rises with age, making osteoporosis care a priority for the future. As populations age, it will become increasingly important to ensure that older people have access to the services and care they need to stay healthy.

Some healthcare professionals are concerned by the level of access to innovation in osteoporosis. Research conducted by ��ֳ�, showed that over a quarter (28%) of bone specialists rated the level of innovation in osteoporosis as below average or poor and, they agreed that health systems are not doing enough to support. If we continue on this path, millions of people risk missing out on an acceptable quality of later life as they age. Ageing is inevitable, but how we age is not.

Of course, innovation is not all about new therapies or technologies. Innovative models of service delivery play a vital role in fracture prevention. A few years ago, we saw a welcome shift in the way osteoporosis is managed with the implementation of the Fracture Liaison Service (FLS). Best practices like the FLS have already undergone rigorous improvement over time, and their benefit is already widely acknowledged. More uptake of these services will provide solutions to the disconnect between patient and healthcare professional.

In addition to best practice processes like an FLS program, patients and physicians alike could benefit from a more individualized approach to treating and monitoring osteoporosis and fracture risk. The availability of reliable biomarkers also promises to make fracture prevention more effective and personal.

Looking ahead, using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to analyse bone scans could help to identify patients susceptible to future fractures and lead to more effective clinical intervention, ultimately driving towards reducing the co-morbidities associated with osteoporosis.

For our part, ��ֳ� is working to advance osteoporosis management and fracture prevention. We will continue to strive to deliver value to patients by developing new therapies and embracing the latest technologies. It is vital that patients have access to these new tools if we are to tackle healthy ageing together.

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patient value osteoporosis innovation Health Europa fracture FLS

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COVID-19: How AI partnership is helping our search for new therapies

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Osteoporosis care: bringing innovation to those that will benefit the most

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