From Drug Design To Distribution: This Is How Robotics, A.I. and Blockchain Transforms Pharma

Exoskeletons to aid pharma factory workers. 3D printing to allow pharmacies to produce drugs on the spot. Blockchain technologies to help fight counterfeit drugs.?

These are just bits and pieces, but the entire process of the pharmaceutical supply chain will be affected by disruptive technologies. Let me show you how innovations will make it more efficient, faster and cheaper than ever before.

“We call it Robi”, the smiling pharmacist told me when I looked at the robotic dispenser pacing up and down in a small glass-fronted drug storage room of the pharmacy. The robot spares humans about two hours of medication stacking and distribution every single day. “And it only makes mistakes if I make one. Or when there are too many requests at the same time” – the pharmacist added. By leveraging robotic tools, pharmacies can reduce the time for monotonous tasks and shorten the waiting time. This one is just one tiny example of the zillions of solutions where robots improve the pharma supply chain.

Will there be robots behind the counter in the pharmacies of the future? Probably. But there will also be a human.

Diverse and diversified instead of linear supply chains

Time and efficiency are key in the operation of the pharmaceutical supply chain. Its main objective is to deliver the right medication to the person in need as fast as possible – to aid the healing process in the best way possible. While the drug designing, manufacturing, and distribution supply chains have been changing constantly due to new technologies, the scope and quality of the recent transformation are much more profound.

First and foremost, these supply chains always represented a linear, one-way process: from the drug producer to the consumer. As technologies are integrating the patient more and more into the entire pharmaceutical industry – not as an end-user, but as an active shaper of outcomes, supply chains transform into two-way streets.

Secondly, these networks have grown immensely in scope and complexity due to globalisation, new technologies and the advancement of transportation. Thirdly, personalisation and targeted treatments will result in the fragmentation and diversification of these networks, while fourthly, disruption will allow smaller companies with relatively few experiences to connect to the market.

Moreover, there is a real chance for the home of the patient to also become part of the supply chain due to 3D printing or artificial intelligence.

Of course, each technology will impact a different part of the pharmaceutical supply chain and to a different degree, so it is worth looking at them separately and in more detail.

Artificial Intelligence in drug design

A.I. solutions could fundamentally alter the traditional process of designing drugs. It could make drug development much cheaper and more effective; remarkably shorten the drug production circle, and help out pharma in finding new drugs. All this without burdening clinical trials and accumulating costs.

According to estimates, it takes about 12 years and $2.9 billion for an experimental drug to advance from concept to market. In 2019, A.I. pharma startup Insilico Medicine identified a potential new drug in only 46 days. This is the difference A.I. is capable of.?

San Francisco-based Atomwise uses supercomputers that root out therapies from a database of molecular structures. During the Ebola epidemic in 2015, Atomwise used its A.I. algorithm to identify two drugs with significant potential to reduce Ebola infectivity. This analysis that typically would have taken months or years was completed in less than one day.

At the start of the pandemic, global cooperation was formed to help the search for effective drug treatments against COVID-19. In less than 10 days after repurposing their toolset to find a treatment for COVID-19, BarabasiLab had a list of promising drugs for testing in human cell lines in an experimental lab. They used A.I.-based network medicine to be able to do so.

Network medicine

Robotics and augmented reality will support drug manufacturing

With its need for speed, repeatability, and verification, pharmaceutical manufacturing is ideally suited to benefit from robot automation. Consistency or cost-efficiency are all arguments in favour of robots; as not only does the robot perform its tasks exactly as it is told to, everything it does can be thoroughly documented. Global robotics company, Denso Robotics, for example, offers the three most commonly used types of robots, cartesian, SCARA and articulated robots for different tasks in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Robotic medical dispenser systems as medication management solutions help any given facility “right-size” its system for its volume. It is also an emerging best practice that these robots are designed with robust data mining capabilities. It means that pharmacies can gain valuable insights about their traffic and efficiency all the time.

Robots or A.I. can and will not replace humans when it comes to more complex assignments requiring creativity and problem-solving skills. However, humans can get better at their tasks using digital technologies.

One example in pharma is how people could learn faster and more efficiently through augmented reality (AR). Moreover, their training would not require extra workforce either; colleagues assigned with the coaching of newcomers might get different tasks.

In another scenario, exoskeletons could aid workers to lift heavy loads and support them in enduring long hours of standing or other uncomfortable positions.

Source: freepic.com

Alternative routes for production: 3D printing drugs in pharmacies

While automation and AR-supported workforce considerably speed up the process of manufacturing and enable the production of large quantities of the same medication, 3D printing would allow pharma companies to create drugs in more effective dose formats. It would also enable low-volume production coupled with personalised medicine.

The idea is not as far-fetched as you think. In 2016, the FDA just approved an epilepsy drug called Spritam that is made by 3D printers. It prints out the powdered drug layer by layer to make it dissolve faster than average pills. Scientists working with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have developed a new 3D printer that can synthesise 14 different classes of a small molecule using a set of chemical building blocks. However, Spritam is the only FDA-approved 3D printed drug to date.

In an exclusive interview for The Medical Futurist Patreon channel, Dr. Alvaro Goyanes, Development Director and lead project researcher of 3D printed drug company, FabRx told me: “I have found no drug that we couldn't 3D print so far.” Dr. Goyanes believes the technology will be available everywhere in 5-10 years, as it’s already in hospitals. “We envision a system where medicines are going to be prepared from raw materials in the same way you use a Nespresso machine to prepare coffee.” However, the FabRx team was cautious about the potential of the GP e-mailing the drug prescription and the patient 3D printing it at home.

Blockchain securing distribution chains

The pharmaceutical industry has a particular interest in blockchain technology. Within the network where medication gets from pharmaceutical companies through distributors, hospitals, and pharmacies to the patient, the most important challenge is to ensure the safety and security of the products themselves.?

The issue of counterfeit medicines, as the dark side of networked markets and globalisation, has become increasingly pressing; both in terms of the economic cost of this global black market and the risk to human life that comes from taking counterfeit drugs. In many developing countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, counterfeit drugs comprise between 10 – 30 percent of the total medicines on sale. Blockchain technology can be the answer to this issue.

The technology offers security through transparency. It might work as follows: barcode-tagged drugs could be scanned and entered into secure digital blocks whenever they change hands. This ongoing real-time record could be viewed anytime by authorised parties and even patients at the far end of the supply chain. This would make it much more difficult for criminal networks to sell their counterfeit drugs on the market.

However, the advantages of blockchain for pharma do not stop there. Drug developers running clinical trials might be able to share clinical data and medical samples more securely and simply; while in healthcare, vaccine registries could be more easily set up and relied upon. And while blockchain underpins the digital currencies demanded in ransomware attacks, the technology could also play a role in securing sensitive industry data from malicious attacks.

Overall, pharma should embrace digital health technologies or small companies coming from a garage that might beat them at speed, patient centricity, and cost (the triad of success in the digital age).