Q&A: AI platform to predict global drug shortages before they happen
Rebekah Jordan talks with Peter Shone, chief technology officer, iethico, about its latest AI-powered platform that can give clear indications of medicine shortages and has the capability to predict future supply chain challenges - and what this means for pharmacists worldwide.
Pharmaceutical sourcing platform iethico has secured a £625,000 investment, from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) managed by Midven (part of the Future Planet Capital Group) to help tackle the global medicine shortages with its platform linking pharmacists with suppliers of hard-to-get medicines.
The investment, which is split into two tranches, will help the company boost its headcount and complete the market testing of its platform. The second tranche will be used as the cornerstone of a larger series A funding round.
Q. Given the use of AI, how does the platform actually work?
A. The problem of drug shortages is an increasing national and international problem which currently does not have any effective solution either in the UK or internationally. Drug shortages can occur at local, regional, national or even international levels. Locally a pharmacist may run short of supplies necessary to fulfil prescriptions. Regionally a whole NHS trust may not have sufficient stocks of supplies to meet patient needs. Both are commonly caused by issues in the existing restricted supply chain where the usual wholesale supplier does not have stock.
National shortages of drugs are also becoming common place, caused by international supply chain issues where distribution of manufactured product is inefficient. Some international supply shortages can simply be caused by inequitable distribution of supplies of the drug.
One characteristic is common to shortages - they are detected reactively. There is currently no early warning system in place to alert key personnel at any level that a new shortage is emerging, whether at a local pharmacy or an international drug manufacturer.
One other characteristic they share as a result is that attempts to mitigate the shortage produces a great deal of manual effort in attempts to find and secure alternative supplies, or even alternative treatments. That manual effort is decentralised, inefficient, and fraught with difficulties. Whether it is pharmacists phoning the wholesalers they know of, or a manufacturer trying to gain shortage insight, the process is labour intensive, manual, hugely inefficient, and as a result often unsuccessful.
iethico is creating a digital technology to replace the inefficient existing process by building an automated data powered cloud based service which will enable all parties connected to the drug shortage process to share information and collaborate on the problem. Pharmacists will be able to contact and contract with multiple/many potential wholesalers and distributors simultaneously with their needs saving considerable time whilst having greater impact. Wholesalers and distributors with stock will be able to supply to a wider range of pharmacists and fulfil their requests for supplies. Data and insights on shortages can be gathered and shared.
iethico is also creating analytical methods to be able to extract the early warning signals of emerging drug shortages, and alert stakeholders in advance. Several proprietary methods are being developed to enhance this early warning system.
New data models are need to be developed in line with national and international nomenclature standards. This means researching and developing new methods for analysis using the leading techniques of Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence never before utilised in this context. Using the new data structure created for the system it must manage drug nomenclature and drug naming convention variations internationally with automated reconciliation. This is extremely laborious and often realistically impossible manually and where AI can really play a part.
Q. What considerations do you think need to be made when designing such a platform?
A. There are many challenges to solve in order to create an efficient service to tackle the drug shortage problem. iethico has established that the necessary business processes are possible at small scale using manual efforts but the biggest challenge arises from turning what has already been established as scientifically feasible into a cost-effective, reliable, scalable process and service that is intuitive to consume for both pharmacists and suppliers. Our key task is to make the jobs of our customers significantly less time consuming, and ultimately to enable patients to receive the treatments their clinicians prescribe in a timely and safe way.
One key consideration is how have ensured only legitimate licensed suppliers and pharmacists have access to iethico. We see that the internet is awash with unlicensed and uncontrolled sources of medication, some of which is undoubtedly fake and possibly dangerous. We have put processes in place to minimise and as far as possible eliminate the risk of illegitimate suppliers or pharmacists working via our platform.
Q. How would iethico provide support in the vaccine landscape - for example Covid vaccines and booster shots? Would certain countries/demographics need to be prioritised?
A. iethico is a neutral broker in the medication supply chain, as such we cannot either make recommendations for medication or take prioritisation decisions. In fact we do not gather or hold any end patient information or consumer demographics at all. We simply seek to facilitate the connection of pharmacists experiencing a supply shortage to suppliers with available stock. Initially our service is focusing on prescription medication, but in future that may also apply to medical devices, vaccines, and other clinical supplies.
One of the key benefits of iethico’s near real time supply approach is in the opportunity for short dated supplies to be redistributed rather than ultimately expiring on the shelf and being destroyed. This brings not only cost savings but also has a positive environmental impact. That may well be particularly relevant to vaccine supply and redistribution in future.
Q. How will the platform provide support on both a global and localised scale?
A. From the outset we have designed our technology solution to work at international scale whilst maintaining the key regulatory compliances. That is the system must comply with national and international standards for data privacy, financial and pharmaceutical regulation and allow structured requests for drugs to be distributed in multiple languages against a varied pharmaceutical data landscape. If that sounds complex, that’s because it is and probably explains why it has not been done before. Our approach is to launch in the UK, but to quickly on board additional countries. International interest has already been strong with enquiries and support for our approach coming in from across Europe, North America, and further afield.
Q. Following the recent investment, what’s next for iethico?
A. The recent investment allows us to test our first product in the UK. Post beta-testing, iethico has a detailed plan for launching fully in the UK and across other major markets. It is envisaged that there may be future research and development required to further enhance the system. The timescale of the R&D will span multiple years, with incremental delivery in phases.
Q. In your opinion, how will AI and digital solutions impact the drug sourcing side of pharma?
A. We believe the industry is still largely powered by reactive manual efforts. Moving to a digital platform with advanced AI powered analytics we believe will not only relieve pharmacy staff workloads but ultimately enable a shift from reactive management of a shortage issue to proactive prevention of it. That’s the ultimate goal but there are many steps necessary to get there.
Q. Anything else you would like to add?
In a world with sufficient manufacturing capacity shortages shouldn’t occur, but they obviously still do, we are trying to help fix that.