The market size for artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical trials is projected to reach $4.8 billion by 2027 from $1.5 billion in 2022, at annualized growth of 25.6 per cent, as per estimates. As technology adoption in clinical trials is scaling up fast, Rosemary Hegde, Global Head Lifesciences and Healthcare, Business Process Services (BPS)-Enterprise Growth Group (EGG), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), spoke about role of AI in clinical trials, new innovations TCS is bringing to the table, company’s expansion plans in India and the way forward. Edited excerpts from an interview:
BT: What is the role of AI in clinical trials?
RH: Clinical Trials involve working with cross-disciplinary expert teams using different systems and formats of data. Manual processing of all this information is cumbersome and has a lot of subjectivity and inefficiencies in the overall process. Technology interventions are continuing to be adopted in the life-sciences industry to bring in efficiency and AI is playing greater role in several areas of clinical trials. Some of the key areas are Risk based Quality management (RBQM) in clinical operations, medical coding and risk-based data cleaning in clinical data management, content reuse and automation in the regulatory medical writing, automated case processing in Pharmacovigilance etc. TCS is bringing these innovations through its agile innovation cloud framework as well as its investments in data analytics solutions and our TCS ADD platform, which has several AI enabled solutions, including its AI/machine learning (ML) engine Decision FabricTM for use across the clinical trial and safety life cycle of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
BT: How TCS is helping clients transform their business to help the community at large? What are your products that are helping to expedite drug trials?
RH: TCS is proactively building solutions for the industry, bringing AI/ML through its ADD platform as well as the collaborative model of innovation through its R&D innovation centres which are PACE Ports where new innovations are tested through joint solutions involving pharma customers, TCS, start-ups and academia under its co-innovation (COIN) model. TCS digital solutions is helping to identify the best-suited clinical trials for a specific disease, digitizing e-consent and ePRO all of which help in the most appropriate and quicker patient onboarding and help to reach a needy demographic of patients by providing access in their homes or local clinics.
This helps bring drugs and devices faster to the market. In addition, the Digital TWIN model is being used as an In-Silico model which helps to reduce/avoid animal/human testing. A broader picture of how the industry will shape up if we reduce the time of documentation which will in-turn help the new drug introduction in the market a foretime.
Our ADD platform and our AI/machine learning (ML)-driven innovation solutions as well as our BPaaS solutions are helping to expedite drug trials across the development lifecycle. The ADD Data Management platform facilitates integrated clinical data management by combining the clinical data from multiple systems. TCS metadata repository platform automates study build, provides robust governance for data standards and enables cross- departmental data lineage. TCS ADD Connected Clinical Trials platform accelerates trials by connecting the patients, sites, and sponsors and enables clinical trial kits and samples tracking, digital labels, medication adherence, eDiaries, eCOA/ePRO, eConsent, and Televisit, to carry out efficient and seamless clinical trial operations. TCS has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Life Science R&D Decentralized Clinical Trial (DCT) Technology Solutions for the year 2022.
BT: Which all diseases do you want to cover apart from cancer and which pharma companies are working with you?
RH: We cover clinical, regulatory, and safety operations for 23 therapeutic areas, which cover almost all target ailments, including oncology, cardiology, neurosciences, gastrointestinal disorders, Infectious diseases, rare diseases, chronic lifestyle related disorders, etc. TCS is a supplier of choice and has been delivering various clinical development services to over 20 companies, out of which TCS has sustained long term relationships with 15 of the Top 15 Pharmaceutical companies. These companies are leading in research and development (R&D), healthcare, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumer products, biopharma, animal health, etc. We are working with leading Indian pharmaceutical companies as well, helping them to complete the clinical trials in an accelerated fashion by leveraging digital technologies.
BT: What are the plans for business expansion in India?
RH: We are looking at targeting the Indian market with more cost-effective holistic BPaaS solutions and will also look to leverage internal expertise through partnering within TATA Group in providing end-to-end models. We have established new delivery centres in India in Tier 2 cities across multiple states to cater to our customers across India and the world. India is a potential market since we have many unmet medical needs and there are many global and Indian pharmaceutical companies targeting marketing authorization for products in this geography since the scale of the target market is huge, especially in areas such as oncology, cardiology, immunology and diabetology. This means conducting local trials, and real-world evidence studies for which cost effective solutions are needed, which TCS can provide. Also, the Indian regulator is expecting more stringent coverage in line with global trials, which means organisations like TCS can bring in their expertise from global experience. Additionally, as a TATA group company, we are working jointly with institutions such as TATA Medical Centre and TATA 1mg to find effective solutions for the demographic in India.