The biotech industry is witnessing unprecedented demand on many fronts. Change is taking place at the speed of light. AI and ML are revolutionising modern research.
Understanding proteins is quicker
The biotech industry is witnessing unprecedented demands on many fronts. Change is taking place at the speed of light. AI and ML are revolutionising modern research. The time taken to discover the molecule has been reduced with the intervention of AI. Data analytics assisted through deep mind technology is playing a crucial role in meeting these demands. Machine learning, robotics, informatics and AI branches can help in expanding the horizons of the industry and move towards newer possibilities. For example, Alpha Fold (by Deepmind), helps to understand a protein like never before. Now we can predict the 3D structure of millions of proteins from amino acid sequence using this tool with great accuracy.
Precision medicine
The trend is now towards precision medicine or precision breeding. When we are talking about precision in life sciences, we are directing ourselves to the genetic unit of the make of an organism. Through our current genomics understanding and Nobel prize winning technology such as CRISPR, we are able to achieve precision in therapy. This tool can address rare and genetic diseases which previously had no hope of cure. Many companies are hugely investing in this technology to address diseases which were once incurable. That means there would be specific drug for specific person with specific disease.
Shift to Biologics based drugs
The biopharma industry is witnessing a shift towards biologics-based drug overtaking from the chemical based synthetic drug. In 2023, US FDA has approved maximum biologics. Out of 53 drugs, 17 are biologics which is the highest in history and 12 out of those biologics are monoclonal antibodies. With diseases becoming resistant to a particular drug, biologics remains the answer, as resistance is hard to arrive. Even in the agriculture sector, people are moving more to biologics-based formulation. Enzymes are being used to address environmental issues.
Need for investment
With all the technology trends we enter into, there is always a challenge in adaptation and commercial use. As a translational scientific community, the challenge remains to make ourselves well versed with ethical norms of the technology and work towards upliftment of society. Also, training the workforce to acquire new skills and raising funds to adopt and implement such technology is a major challenge. The venture capitalist community in India should consider this sector with patience as the gestation period to any discovery is high. We need more and more foreign investors participating in Indian biotech sector. Currently India is ready to bring discoveries for the world. All we need is the investment to boost the change.
