Artificial Intelligence in the Pharma Industry: Clinical Trials
Artificial Intelligence has played an increasingly important role within the pharmaceutical space especially with recent restrictions due to COVID-19. The drug development process can be lengthy and costly but many companies have begun implementing AI into their clinical trials to speed up patient on-site visits, test efficacy and bring more drugs to market. As we discussed previously, AI has played an important role in the discovery process. Now let’s take a look at AI in clinical trials…
PRNewswire reports the global virtual clinical trials market size is expected to reach 11.5 billion USD by 2028 with a compound annual growth rate of 5.7% from 2021 to 2028 according to Grand View Research, Inc. The growth in the virtual clinical trial space is directly related to the need for an increase in patient diversity and an increase in the number of decentralized/virtual trials due to the impact of COVID-19.
Patient Recruitment and Retention
The American Council on Science and Health reports the probability of success for all drugs and vaccines is 13.8% (if oncology drugs are excluded, the figure is 20.9%). Clinical trials fail for a variety of reasons including flawed study design, failed efficacy or safety, a shortage of funding or under enrollment of patients. Patients are the backbone of a clinical trial and retention rates directly affect their success.
Companies like Deep 6 AI apply artificial intelligence to medical records to find more, better-matching patients for clinical trials in minutes, rather than months. Deep 6 AI’s software analyzes data like doctor’s notes, pathology reports and operational notes that are not easily found. With the use of AI, companies can compile data from these important documents to better predict which patients will respond favorably to the drug or device in question and have a higher chance of sticking with the trial.
Wearables and Voice Assisted AI Technology
Implementing AI and new modes of technology to decrease travel time and reduce lengthy site visits for patients enrolled in trials will not only cut costs but increase retention rates. Wearable devices that measure vitals like body temperature, blood pressure and respiration rate in the comfort of a patient’s home and even a 24/7 basis allow for more data collection throughout the clinical trial process and ease for patients, reducing the amount of data they have to collect outside of their site visits.
AI powered digital voice assistant technologies that are commonly used in our computers, smartphones and in home devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Nest are also making their way into the clinical trial process. ICON reports there has been a 130% rise in US sales of voice-enabled devices such as Amazon Echo and Google home, with over 10% of Americans using a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month. Utilizing voice assistant technologies during clinical trials provides patients with more engagement and change from the standard web browser or app while also making trials more accessible and easier to navigate for those patients that struggle to use a mobile device or computer.
With the use of AI we can increase patient enrollment and retention rates, cut costs and create a more inclusive clinical trial process. Next we will discuss how AI is used in manufacturing and marketing.
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