The Virtual World Creeps into Pharma
The idea of virtual clinical trials is not new, but its practice may soon be. A report released last week by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Pharma 2020: Virtual R&D, Which Path Will You Take?, suggests that the R&D process may be shortened by two-thirds come the year 2020. In addition, PWC predicts that success rates in the R&D process may dramatically increase and that clinical-trial costs could be cut substantially, thanks to new computer-based technologies.
These technologies can help create a greater understanding of disease and of potential drug effects, according to a June 20 PWC release. Virtual R&D can also help take a big chunk out of rising clinical-trial costs.
“Models of the heart, organ, cells systems, and musculoskeletal architecture are already being developed by academics around the world. Such technologies can be used to simulate the physiological effects of interacting with specific drugs and identify which drugs have a bearing on the course of a disease,” said Steve Arlington, PWC global pharmaceutical and life sciences industry advisory leader, in the release. “Some companies using virtual technology have reduced clinical-trial times by 40% and reduced the number of patients required by two-thirds.”
PWC points out that virtually-modeled molecules will still have to be tested in real human beings, but that the number of live individuals typically tested in a trial can be greatly decreased.
But is virtual research something industry is ready for? I can just imagine FDA trying to put together a “virtual” inspection guideline. More important, will real, live patients trust a drug’s efficacy and safety based on research done using not-so-real patients?
Read PWC’s Pharma 2020: Virtual R&D report.
Every time you take an airplane you are trusting on something that was first designed using virtual models. There is no difference.
No drug will be verified only on virtual models, the final verifications will be done exactly as they are done today, with randomised controlled clinical studies.
However, the difference is that before we enter animal and human experimentation, we shall have already screened away many candidate molecules that could be dangerous and/or ineffective. This will reduce the cost of drug development, improve the time-to-market, and make feasible a more personalised medicine, reduce the animal experimentation, and increase the safety of clinical trial.
Marco Viceconti
Scientific Coordinator, STEP Europhysiome initiative