The scale on which technology can turn up and deliver is probably one of the biggest reasons why it has gained such an influence in our lives. Furthermore, the fact that it can do so across entirely different disciplines only makes the scenario more unbelievable. Now, once we had realized these factors, the question became more about how efficiently it can manage to do the said task. To answer this question, technology began to make forays into all types of sectors around us. At first, of course, it was viewed like nothing more than a mere tool to facilitate the operations in a slightly better way. However, before anyone could realize, the creation scaled up and became the very centerpiece of these sectors. After all, how do you beat the overall value it brought to the table on a consistent basis? Amongst these sectors that were having their moment of epiphany was the field of healthcare. The healthcare sector has been long crying out for an upgrade, so when it saw technology potentially being the answer to that, the sector didn’t waste any time in pledging its allegiance to the creation. It’s safe to say that the decision to do so has been beyond good, as the sector’s astronomical growth continues to surprise everyone. With technology getting better every day, the level of commitment we should show to it becomes something to ponder over. Nevertheless, the medical sector’s pharmatech branch apparently had no such dilemma, and a recent announcement from the industry’s leaders proves that big time.
AstraZeneca, MerckKGaA, Pfizer, and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries have all joined forces to form an AI/pharma and computational biology innovation lab. They have named it as AION Labs. As indicated above, the initiative is designed to bolster productive implementation of artificial intelligence and computational science for solving some of the more complicated therapeutic challenges. In a more actionable sense, AION Labs will work by creating and investing in early-stage start-up teams that are using the said technologies in the process of drug discovery and development. Apart from providing these start-ups with resources and mentorship, the companies plan on establishing an active collaboration with them, therefore preaching collective efforts to achieve the desired goal.
“Our R&D needs-based approach, coupled with our outstanding alliance, is poised to transform the process of therapeutic discovery and development,” says Mati Gill, CEO of AION Labs.
In order to make a better push, AION Labs will be bringing both a wet lab, as well as a cloud-based computational lab into the fold. The idea here is to turn biomedical research more in sync with the development of new algorithms and computational methods. This, as you can guess, is expected to pave the way for more effective therapies. According to the statement released by AION Labs, the entity’s cloud presence is going to be managed by Amazon Web Services.
