Big Data

Louis Goss explores the potential uses for the much-hyped technology blockchain as a tool to tackle the data management challenges faced by the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries

On 10 February 1996, the supercomputer Deep Blue checkmated world champion chess player Garry Kasparov. The two-hour game became the first instance of a reigning world champion being beaten by a machine.

Having lost the first game, the Russian grandmaster did manage to win out overall, beating IBM’s original Deep Blue computer 4-2 in a match of six games.

They’re two of the biggest buzzwords getting professionals excited across pharma – Anjali Shukla explores the ways in which AI and big data are set to galvanise the industry.

Even if you haven’t been paying attention, it is hard to miss the buzz around artificial intelligence or deep learning and how the technology is only steps away from changing lives forever. The optimism is especially significant in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry as researchers continue to look out for cures for complex diseases.

Dr Chris Barber, CEO of not-for-profit organisation and educational charity Lhasa Limited, discusses new innovations and ideas that are set to affect the drug discovery space.

Drug discovery is a fast-moving field, with the past decade alone witnessing huge advances in both scientific research and technological innovations which hold the potential to increase efficiencies, success-rates and novel medicines across a growing range of indications.

If you want to understand the importance of data, look at Google and Facebook – neither company is out of their teenage years and yet they are two of the most valuable companies in the world through the power of information. Ben Hargreaves examines how the data revolution is now transforming the pharmaceutical landscape

Alexander Hitchcock and Eleonora Harwich, researchers at UK think tank Reform, discuss the increasing importance of big data in the future of the healthcare industry, and how its use could benefit patients and pharmaceutical companies alike.

It is perhaps the most tantalising question for the fourth industrial revolution: how can pharma firms use big data to design medicines that treat patients more safely?