by Technology has brought revolution everywhere. No field is untouched. It has impacted a great deal in all fields. It has served as a boon to tackle all old fashioned time consuming tasks. It has helped to fulfill the need of the hour as the population of the world is ever increasing. Without technology advancements the world would come to a stand still. The balance between demand and supply can only be maintained by technology. In today’s world when everything is super fast, we can’t lag behind in terms of innovation and advancement.
The field of pharmaceutical is also the platform where technologies have helped to achieve great milestones in no time. Gen Next technologies provide help by instrumentation, software and services to pharmaceutical researchers investigating in structure, interaction, folding, aggression, formulation and delivery.The demand for medicines and vaccines is evergrowing. Everyone needs them to survive in this ever growing place for pathogens due to pollution and over population.
We saw this during Covid 19 wave when the whole world was brought to a stand still with mass casualties and infective cases all over and all around.Mass production of vaccines and medicines was done to settle and save lives of people. Many types of vaccines were available to distribute all over the world.1st dose, 2nd dose and booster dose for general public and health care professionals.To distribute and dispatch all over the world was a huge challenge but due to gen next technologies, we were able to meet the demand and supply with adequate funds and material management.We were able to save many lives and help curb the spread of COVID-19.
Not only in terms of medicines and vaccines, face masks, face shields, sanitizers were produced in humongous numbers to every nooks and corners of the world. People were treated equally in terms of vaccines, medicines and protective equipments.
Few Gen next technologies like Artificial intelligence are speech and image recognition, navigation programs, voice assistants like Siri and Alexa.The AI technologies help in each step of the drug designing procedure which decreases the health hazards related to pre-clinical trials and also reduces the cost substantially. The AI is an effective tool for data mining based on the huge pharmacological data and machine learning process.Artificial intelligence helps save time and energy.Facial recognition is also being tried in the medical and pharmaceutical industry.It is also being used to discover new elements and compounds for engineering new groundbreaking drugs.
Similarly machine language is a part of AI and uses supervised learning to execute plans.
We have Robotic Process Automation which uses multiple software and applications to deliver the required functions.
Technologies are helping drug manufacturers go further and faster in monitoring parient safety, improving efficiencies by reducing manual input.
3D printed organs will be used for transplantation and other purposes very soon, and will eliminate the shortage of organs in future.
Obaloon Balloon system and other intragastric balloons are devices that help patients to reduce weight. It is placed using three balloons is placed individually over a period of three months.It is removed at end of six months by endoscopy. It is effective for patients who have been unable to make lifestyle changes related to diet and exercise.
Biochemical product development is how drug is developed. It deals how drugs interact with the health and well being of humans.
Pharmacists and technology connection is very important as patients deal with pharmacist directly when they need to get medicine prescription.They need to be updated about all new advancements in order to answer the patients doubts. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are essential link between public and pharmaceutical industry.
Also Edge computing, Quantum computing, Virtual reality(VR) and Augmented Reality(AR) are important next gen modern technologies.
In addition Blockchain, Internet of things(IoT), 5G technology,Cyber security, full stack development, computing power, datafication, digital trust, internet of behaviours,predictive analytics are big areas of scope for research in pharmaceutical industry.
Genomics is also the mastermind technology to help develop pharmaceutical industry.
Author: Dr. BINAYAK BIBEK DAS
Department of Pharmacy
University :Vinayaka mission’s kirupananda variyar medical college and hospitals,
Salem, Tamil Nadu
