On the twelfth day of Christmas life science gave to me…predictions of what’s coming

We’ve created our very own 12 days of Christmas for the life science sector. Via news brands Medical Plastics News, Digital Health Age and European Pharmaceutical Manufacturer we’ll be looking back on 2015 in festive form

On the twelfth day of Christmas life science gave to me…

…predictions of what’s coming, health claims a-hyping, big pharma speaking, start-ups expanding, world class R&D’ing, firms that are a-winning, nicotine a-spraying, the internet of things, an app to help with words, French epi-pens, new robotic gloves and devices for cardiology.

There’s no shortage comment as to what’s going to be big in the life science sector, especially pharma, in the coming year.

One area that continues to be a key topic for the sector is continuous manufacturing.

The European Consortium on Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (ECCPM) pointed out that several pharmaceutical companies have been early adopters of continuous manufacturing. According to ECCPM, Vertex, J&J, GSK and Novartis are all working on continuous manufacturing facilities and that there are several advantages associated with this approach – flexibility, speeding up the supply chain and reducing recurring scale-up problems.

Meanwhile, a collaborative research project between Freeman Technology and GEA Pharma Systems is progressing the development of continuous tablet manufacturing. The two firms are looking at identifying metrics that provide a sound basis for the effective control of continuous manufacturing processes.

Beyond-the-pill

We constantly read about pharma going ‘beyond-the-pill’ but what does this mean and will it be significant in 2016? The pharmaceutical sector is experiencing significant influence via digital technology so the idea of the market moving beyond-the-pill has been well documented and we are now seeing how digital innovation is impacting positively within pharma in clinical trials, for example.

Key players in the pharmaceutical world are embracing the benefits that digital technology can provide. Recently we learned that Bayer Healthcare has launched the Grants4Apps Accelerator 2015 program in Berlin awarding grants to five digital health start-ups.  

The EPM team was also part of the digital revolution with its Let’s Get Digital campaign which supports companies looking to take advantage of digital technology to improve the way information is received and analysed. This ultimately impacts on the way in which medication is developed and formulated. The digital revolution is an integral part of the way in which the industry needs to proceed to ensure the future of pharma is as streamlined and competitive as possible.

On Digital Health Age, Dave Gray, looked at the beyond-the-pill concept in detail. He wrote about how recent global events such as the 2007 crash, hit pharma hard causing it to rethink its future progress.

According to Gray: “These were considered dark days for the pharmaceutical market. The crash was just kicking in and global markets everywhere were feeling the pinch, but for pharma, the downturn hit hard.

Clearly, a better model was needed. And this is why Big Pharma sends delegates to digital health events. It’s also why so-called ‘incubators’ are cropping up all over the place. Bayer re-opened its ‘Grants4Apps’ programme back in August, inviting five digital health startups to move in to its pharma HQ in Berlin.”

Fighting infection

In 2016 breakthrough treatments for infectious diseases will be important.

Earlier this year the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) joined up with the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the 7th annual ‘International Day for Fighting Infection’. This year’s event saw the European society exploring vaccines as a possible solution in the global, cross-border fight against antimicrobial resistance.

The WHO provided an update from its European office on ebola while ESCMID explored ways to start harnessing the potential of vaccines in the battle against antimicrobial resistance.

The fight against infectious disease is increasingly important  - more so as we learned that the ‘post-antibiotic world’ could soon be a reality due to a gene strain that prevents antibiotics from killing deadly bacteria, according to researchers.

As the need for pharma companies to have greater control over ingredients looks likely to be of increased importance, this and issues surrounding outsourcing and quality will continue to be key  drivers in 2016.