Digital power was behind key COVID research, says CIO

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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Book of the Month*

The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck

By Dr Christian Busch
Serendipity is an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. To other people it looks like “good luck”, but it is more the ability to recognise and seize an opportunity, rather than have good fortune thrust upon one. Finding a wallet stuffed with money on the conference room floor is good luck, whereas holding it up and asking if anyone has lost their wallet might be the beginning of a valuable friendship – that would be serendipity.

Chance encounters, or strokes of fortune, feature in countless stories of business success. This book looks beneath the surface, reveals and teaches the mindset that can transform pure chance into opportunity. The author is director of the Global Economy Program at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, and a lecturer at the London School of Economics.

Serendipity is an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. To other people it looks like “good luck”, but it is more the ability to recognise and seize an opportunity, rather than have good fortune thrust upon one. Finding a wallet stuffed with money on the conference room floor is good luck, whereas holding it up and asking if anyone has lost their wallet might be the beginning of a valuable friendship – that would be serendipity.

The author says “This is a book about the interactions of coincidence, human ambition and imagination”. In the above example: finding the wallet is the coincidence; ambition is the desire to make something of the discovery; add imagination and you open up a whole menu of possibilities: from spending spree to earning a reputation for honesty – or even making a wealthy friend.

Business is typically forged on human ambition and imagination, but early success often feeds an appetite for control – and “control freaks” can be blind to the opportunities thrown up by the unexpected. They only see chance events as distractions. If plans go awry, they may blame the failure on “bad luck” rather than admit their own inflexible attitude.

The author himself admits to being “a German who is used to planning” and prone to feel anxious when something unexpected happens. That makes him an ideal teacher, because he has worked hard to discover and analyse the mindset that enables one to “connect the dots” and cultivate serendipity. He presents a goldmine of examples from science, business and life where an apparent mishap or failure lead to a breakthrough.

Indeed, studies suggest that around 50% of major scientific breakthroughs emerge as the result of accidents or coincidences. A well-known example is Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, launching the whole field of antibiotics. Other examples include X-rays, nylon, microwave ovens, rubber, Velcro, Viagra and Post-it Notes – where would we be without these!

The book goes beyond the ability to recognise and respond to opportunities in chaos, but the subtitle – The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck – is actually a bit misleading. True, he does show ways to develop better fortune, but it would be better to call it “inviting” or “encouraging” good luck. For example, he suggests better ways to start a conversation with a stranger – ways that will make it more likely to lead to chance connections or shared interests.

The publishers may have chosen the word “creating” to make the book appeal to the human desire to control – for control freaks are exactly the readership that would benefit the most from this book’s wisdom and practical advice.

For the rest of us, it offers a great way to rediscover the sense of play that is so important in life – and too often lost in business.

 

“Following the success of The Serendipity Mindset hardback, a paperback edition has also now been launched under the title “Connect the Dots”.

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