The power of digital technologies and AI were critical in bringing COVID vaccines speedily to market and halting the spread of the pandemic, a leading pharma CIO has said.
Lidia Fonseca, Pfizer’s chief digital and technology officer, speaking at a recent NVIDIA conference, said the ability to process data fast and intelligently had been crucial in speeding up vaccine work, from drug discovery and clinical trials through to supply chain management and then eventually distribution to patients.
“We have clear examples of bringing COVID breakthrough treatments to market in record time by harnessing the power of digital data in AI,” she said.
She said that machine learning models had been useful for seeking molecules with a particular set of properties, and allowing the virus’s protein to be mapped early in the pandemic, alongside partner BioNTech. Compute power had also been essential for getting the vaccine into clinical trials in just four months, as well as analyse discrepancies in trials.
Pfizer is believed to have deployed the MareNostrum 4 supercomputer to test potential new drugs virtually. The machine has a peak performance of 11.15 Petaflops based on two Intel Xeon Platinum 8160 CPUs and four NVIDIA V100 GPUs.
“AI and ML-powered data analytics are turbocharging drug discovery and development, but they can also help enhance prevention, early detection, personalized treatment and digital therapies,” added Fonseca. “On the technology front, we’re seeing developments such as new gene therapies and digital therapeutics. Quantum computing capabilities will help bring breakthrough medicines to patients faster.”
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