Clinical trials form the cornerstone of evidence-based medicine and are essential to establishing the safety and efficacy of new drugs. However, only some of the information in clinical trial reports is well-structured and searchable via keywords; much of the information is buried in unstructured text. In the past, uncovering actionable insights from this unstructured text…

While numerous types of technology have a rightful place in life sciences to cut down on errors, decrease costs and boost efficiency, the adverse event intake and collection process remains primarily manual. It’s common for organizations to use software to support adverse event intake, but end-user intervention is often necessary to collect, input and share…

The field of pharmacovigilance has evolved significantly in recent years. While regulatory authorities have long favored technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning for monitoring patient safety, the trend has accelerated during the pandemic. “I’ve never seen as much advancement as I have in the last two years,” said Marie Flanagan, director, offering management,…

The pharma industry has been slower to embrace technologies such as AI and digital technology than many less-regulated sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the equation, forcing pharma companies to become more agile and open-minded in approaching drug discovery and development, including managing evolving clinical trials. In this article, several experts offered their predictions of…

Direct-to-patient clinical trial company Medable (Palo Alto, California) has added MaryAnne Rizk to its executive team. Rizk formerly worked at IQVIA as a senior vice president, digital R&D strategy. She is also an adjunct professor at the Steven Institute of Technology (Hoboken, New Jersey) and a managing partner at Rizk Management Consulting. In August, Rizk…

While biosimilar adoption remains at an early stage in the U.S., biosimilar adoption is ticking up. Biosimilar penetration for Roche’s Avastin (bevacizumab) is especially high at 69%. In addition, biosimilars for Genentech’s Herceptin and Amgen’s Neupogen have also achieved a market penetration of 57% and 62%, respectively, according to IQVIA data based on late June sales data.…

Like most things in healthcare, clinical trials have been slow to evolve in recent decades. But the COVID-19 pandemic has forced clinical trial research teams to become more efficient, patient-centered and inclusive.   Much is at stake as the pandemic has already caused significant clinical trial disruption. EY estimates that the COVID-19 impact on Phase 3…

One silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has accelerated the rate of change for pharma and life sciences fields in general.  The pandemic has forced a rethink of how to manage clinical trials and treat patients in hospitals and their homes. And the breakneck speed of vaccine development in 2020 could potentially…

As governments and health authorities worldwide gear up to deliver potentially billions of COVID-19 vaccine doses, artificial intelligence and data automation techniques could be a powerful tool combating one of the top hindrances to mass vaccination: vaccine hesitancy.   In particular, natural language processing (NLP) could help health authorities transform adverse event reports from COVID-19 vaccines…

The U.S. pharmaceutical industry has fared better than most sectors in 2020, but the industry still faces tailwinds, according to recent IQVIA research. Total prescription sales are down 2.1% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2020 to date, according to an analysis of the IQVIA data by the investment bank UBS. New prescriptions…