Lifesciences industry sees significant shifts with digital transformation & increased M&As: Chandra Ambadipudi

Lifesciences industry is at a crossroads. There are numerous opportunities with the transformative AI wave, increased M&A (mergers & acquisition) activity, and digital transformation. However, numerous challenges also lie ahead, said Chandra Ambadipudi, founder and CEO ClairLabs.

There are cross-border M&As help companies enter new markets and gain a foothold in emerging economies.

The skyrocketing pricing and the inaccessibility to drugs and medical devices is a burning issue. Patent cliffs, resulting from the looming expirations of patented generics and biosimilars, are causing a loss of exclusivity. Additionally, economic recession, supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions, and a growing shortage of skilled labor further exacerbate the challenges faced by today’s life science organizations, he added.

The focus is on adaptability, value acceleration, and end-to-end digitally empowered hubs. From enhancing products and services to operations and strategic decision-making, new-age technologies and trends are revolutionizing the life sciences industry with disruptive innovations, new opportunities, and market differentiation, Ambadipudi told Pharmabiz in an email.

Conversations around AI have shifted from a productivity mindset to a transformative growth mindset. Quoting a study, he said that a leading pharmaceutical company has automated nearly 80% of its operations from streamlining workflows to robust data analysis and creating synthetic images from histology data to enhance its capabilities in diagnosing rare diseases. Multimodal AI will be a force to reckon with whether it is enabling faster diagnoses, accelerating drug discovery, or enhancing personalized medicine, he noted.

With surging demand for high-quality and reproducible results, prompt clinical translation support in a closed-system environment, and enhanced research efficiency, speed, and productivity, automation is the key differentiator. From GMP compliance to superior analytics and unified, hands-off, 360° workflow solutions, Agentic AI which is beyond traditional AI's limited capabilities will be widely deployed to expedite operations, enhance decision-making, and boost organizational productivity. For instance, a contract research organization (CRO) could leverage Agentic AI to swiftly analyze patient data and recognize patterns and trends to quickly assess trial outcomes, thereby optimizing the trial pipeline.

Currently companies aim to elevate the care value chain by channeling tech-led efforts toward preventive, predictive, diagnostic, and therapeutic modalities. Emergent technologies such as GenAI, immersive reality (AR/VR/XR), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and Synthetic Data Generation (SDG), among others, enable researchers to delve into disease cycles, driving process improvements across DNA sequencing, multi-omics, autologous cell therapy, and wireless health monitoring. It is a positive impact of precision engineering on patient cells, leading to significant research, clinical, and commercial success, said ClairLabs chief.

Over 90% of potential anti-cancer drugs fail to achieve clinical success during the trial phase, primarily due to inaccurate preclinical models used in drug development for personalized therapies. It, therefore, becomes essential for cancer biologists and drug researchers to replicate complex environments and biological processes within real-life patient tumors. This is where 3D tumoroid culture models, 3D cellular structures obtained from a patient’s primary tumor, enter as an excellent alternative. Besides ensuring clinical translatability, these models accurately reflect the physiological behaviors and characteristics of cancer cells, thereby closing the gap between laboratory and clinical settings. It is here lifesciences industry witnesses significant shifts with digital transformation and M&As, said Ambadipudi.