Partnering for Success: Tech & Contract Outsourcing

The convergence of the tech and life sciences industries has been a story of unlikely but transformative collaboration. What once was a relationship characterized by little more than the implementation of basic software solutions in healthcare facilities has now blossomed into a far-reaching partnership, whereby data management, AI, and cloud computing are utilized to address some of the most pressing challenges in healthcare. “Digital medicine has reached a tipping point: algorithms, software programs, and phone apps have proliferated, and now make medical decisions for patients themselves,” says Stephen Perry, CEO of Kymanox. The advent of AI, as recently encapsulated by CHATGPT, made many of us realize its mysterious power. Beyond chat boxes, however, AI is to play a vital role in drug discovery. As Sean Mcclain, the CEO and Founder of Absci, tells us “the industry is still trying to wrap their head around AI and how it can be applied to drug discovery and development to ultimately increase success rates and get medicines to patients faster.” One example of AI’S application in the field comes from the Canadian biotech Abcellera. Its CEO and co-founder, Carl Hansen, shares that they “have spent the last decade working to build an engine that can bring new antibody medicines to the clinic with greater speed and probability of success.” Simultaneously, IT giants like Microsoft are using their expertise in AI to ”work with Adaptive Biotechnologies to develop a machine learning technology that can separate all the T-cells from a blood sample, analyze the DNA and produce a printout with information about every disease that your body is coping with”, as Peter Lee, the Corporate VP, says.

At the same time, as the pharmaceutical industry continues to evolve and become more specialized, Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOS) are emerging as a crucial component in the drug development and production process. CDMOS offer a range of services, from early stage research and development to commercial scale production, allowing pharmaceutical companies to outsource specific aspects of their operations. Pierre-alain Ruffieux, the CEO of Lonza Group, says that his company “brings the technical expertise on the manufacturing process, offers manufacturing facilities, and brings the regulatory expertise required on the quality side”. One of the global giants to join the CDMO industry in the last decades is Samsung Biologics. Its CEO, John Rim, tells us that “the aging population and the continued growth and income in technology advancements led Samsung to invest in the life sciences industry and, as a result, in 2011 founded Samsung Biologics.” Samsung’s bet seems to have paid off and it is now growing at an outstanding pace, doubling its revenue from 2021 to around $1.9 billion. The limit of the potential to be unlocked here remains uncertain. IT has helped make supply chains more efficient. In the words of Mandar Paralkar from SAP: “Covid-19 proved that supply chain networks have to be resilient. Regulatory agencies around the world protect their citizens by requiring serialization documentation of ingredients to ensure pharmaceutical products follow local regulations. All this additional paperwork increases the burden on the industry, not just when it comes to source transparency, but also for the IT systems that have to be ready to support traceability." Jeffrey Simmons, CEO of animal health company Elanco, voices excitement and hope in view of their collaboration with the IT industry, which will help them have a wider reach: “With 69 years of history, we are at a point at which we have a network that reaches the world’s pets and animals.april 2023 will be a milestone as we roll out our new SAP system that can reach into over 100 countries. Elanco will be the bridge to the world’s animals.” From improving drug development and manufacturing, to AI and efficient supply chain, the IT industry and CDMO industries are now at the forefront of progress in the life sciences.