International Top Pharmaceutical Awards

  Most large language models (LLMs) used in health car e settings, such as AI chatbots, are being assessed in a fragmented and inconsistent way that does not encompass real patient information, researchers have warned. A new study, in the journal  JAMA , found that just one in 20 evaluation studies included real patient data that reflected the complexities of clinical practice. Most instead focused on the accuracy of answering medical examinations , which resulted in limited attention on considerations such as fairness, bias, toxicity and deployment. The investigators said that testing these AI programs on hypothetical medical questions has previously been likened to certifying a car for road worthiness using a multiple-choice questionnaire. “Real patient care data encompasses the complexities of clinical practice, providing a thorough evaluation of LLM performance that will mirror clinical performance,” they maintained, calling for consensus-based methods ofassessment. Co-fi...

  Precision medicine is bringing in a new era of  personalised healthcare . The field began to take concrete shape when scientists were wrapping up the Human Genome Project. Since then, genomics has played a major role in the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers, chronic diseases, and immunological, cardiovascular, and liver diseases. Other emerging technologies such as gene-editing and mRNA therapeutics also contribute to precision medicine. In a recent success story, researchers were  able to restore vision  in people who had lost it due to a genetic mutation using gene therapy. In a more recent and more notable example, researchers in the U.K.  reversed an individual’s diabetes  by transplanting reengineered stem cells. During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers were able to use the mRN A platform to develop new vaccines in record time,  winning the technology a Nobel Prize  last year. Organ-on-chips is another area that promises preci...

A US-based non-profit which aims to use drug repurposing to plug the global gap for disease treatments has received US$60m from TED’s Audacious Project to advance its work globally. Of the approximate 18,500 recognised diseases in the world, only around 4,000 have FDA-approved treatments. Every Cure, an AI-focused biotech, aims to help change this through drug repurposing – the movement to unlock the life-saving potential of existing drugs. Over the next five years it will use the US$60m from TED to evaluate the most promising treatments identified by its  AI  platform in laboratory and clinical studies. It will collaborate with patient organisations and stakeholders linked to the most promising drug repurposing opportunities, to ensure that these treatments reach the patients that need them the most. Every Cure was founded in 2022 by Dr.  David Fajgenbaum , Dr.  Grant Mitchell , and  Tracey Sikora  to amplify the impact they had been making at the  ...

Evonik is collaborating with KNAUER Wissenschaftliche Geräte GmbH, a manufacturer of scientific instruments, to improve the upscaling of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations. By combining Evonik’s formulation and scale-up expertise with KNAUER’s technological know-how, customers can improve efficiency and increase speed to market, significantly cutting the initial pre-clinical development time. As part of the c ompany’s Nutrition & Care division , Evonik’s Health Care business is leveraging partnerships with life science and industry leaders to expand its portfolio of biosolutions, including innovations in nucleic acid-based medicines. “Our extensive expertise in chemistry and formulation science has enabled us to capture a significant proportion of the growing market for mRNA and gene therapies. Thanks to our collaboration with KNAUER, we are now even better positioned to offer differentiation options,” said Yann d'Hervé, head of the Health Care business line at Evonik. Nuc...

Psychiatric drugs are reported to be about 50% more effective in clinical trials funded by the drug’s manufacturer than when trials of the same drug are sponsored by other groups, new research shows. While many studies have found more favorable results for drugs in clinical trials funded by their manufacturers, these studies normally just compare a set of manufacturer-funded studies with a set of studies funded in other ways, said Tamar Oostrom, assistant professor of economics at The Ohio State University, who conducted this new research. This new study is the first to have an apples-to-apples comparison. “I compared different clinical trials in which the exact same pairs of drugs are compared for their effectiveness – the only substantial difference being who funded the study,” Oostrom said. Oostrom called her finding the “ sponsorship effect.” “There was this dramatic difference – removing the sponsorship effect would reduce the difference in efficacy between a sponsored drug and ot...

  Spinogenix , the company behind the once-a-day pill that restored lost nerve cell connections in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has now set its sights on using the pill to provide a novel treatment for another debilitating disease: schizophrenia. Earlier this year, New Atlas reported on a groundbreaking once-a-day pill that restored lost nerve cell connections or synapses in the brain. The creation of biopharmaceutical company Spinogenix Inc., early clinical trials of the drug, called SPG302, to treat the fatal nervous system disease amyotrophic l ateral sclerosis (ALS) yielded impressive results. needed advancement in the treatment of multiple symptoms and patients who are treatment resistant,” said Dr. Stella Sarraf, Spinogenix’s CEO and founder. Schizophrenia is a serious, chronic mental illness that affects how people think, feel, and perceive. Its hallmark is psychosis, which describes when a person is disconnected from reality. Schizo...