Drugs have been in use since around 5,000 B.C. to treat, cure, prevent diseases and promote well-being. However, it’s only in the last decade that modern technology has been used to improve drug research and development. So much so, today, modern technology is a key component in the development of new drugs. The use of computers, software, and automated machines enables drug companies to test thousands of drug molecules in one go. With continued advancement in technology, drug companies are now using big data, cloud computing, and other tech innovations to speed up their processes and develop more effective medications.
Drug discovery and development is a highly complex process wherein very large amounts of data and information is generated. Typically, the amount of time elapsed between researching a drug and its commercialization is 10 years, but this may be minimized with the use of drug discovery informatics in the coming years.
Modern technology has improved the entire drug discovery lifecycle. This is required as the amount of data from new methods of gene sequencing has enormously increased the amount of data available. Likewise, informatics can help engineer a medical operation’s records, and thus discovery informatics can make the entire process of researching and creating new effective drugs faster and efficient.
Drug discovery informatics supports other areas of medical research as well.For example, it supports the continued development of precision medicine, which is aimed at increasing the success rate of medical care for specific patient groups based on molecular or genetic makeup.
What is Drug Discovery Informatics?
Medical researchers create vast amounts of data when conducting research for treatments of specific diseases or for certain patient groups. Discovery informatics involves the creation of frameworks that work more efficiently with such large data sets of clinical trial and treatment data.
A drug discovery informatics system from a leading IT services company uses advanced algorithms to process data, leading to;
- Combining varied, curated public datasets related to disease, drug, protein, gene expression, pathway, and sequence data
- Using various visualization types to offer different perspectives on data analysis results
- Serving to customize the system for different aspects of the data in drug discovery research
Growing Drug Discovery Informatics Market Landscape
Drug discovery informatics is a complicated, innovative field. It has come a long way from where it was a decade ago. A research paper from the National Institutes of Health investigatedthe possibilities of drug discovery informatics, but also reported this to be a largely unmet informatics challenge. Usingmodern computational, and engineering approach the models are simulated, examined, and visualized. The drug discovery informatics market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 17% during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. Using drug discovery informatics, the cost and time of drug discovery are reduced to a very large extent in comparison to traditional drug discovery process.
Taking a cue from this, drug discovery informatics computer programs are used by the healthcare industry, and for a decade or more, most of the pharmaceutical, and biotechnological companies have dedicated scientists to use drug discovery informatics. With continuous growth in the number of complicated biological targets, this has resulted in shifting practice to outsource drug discovery informatics, increasing expectations for project decisions from executive management. The availability of new technologies promotes collaboration in the discoveries among project teams between organizations. The drug discovery informatics provides higher independence to researchers, and laboratory scientists, equipping with better decision making tools.
The growth of drug discovery informatics market could be ascribed to increasing demand for advanced technologies for the identification and development of new drugs. Besides this, growing investments in R&D by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are also expected to garner sales in the market. The drug discovery process is time-intensive and expensive, thereby making it essential for pharmaceutical companies to invest in most efficient and effective tools. Adoption of drug discovery informatics helps researchers to quickly and easily identify potential drug targets and develop new therapies. With the increasing ubiquity of big data, informatics has become critical to the discovery process. The increased demand for drug discovery informatics professionals is anticipated to present employment opportunities over the next decade.
The growth in the drug discovery informatics market comes as pharmaceutical companies continue to struggle with high costs and limited alternatives for treating certain diseases. Nonetheless, qualified personnel can expect numerous opportunities in this upcoming field;
- Drug discovery informatics is designed to support the entire drug discovery process, and role of informatics technology has been constantly growing at every step, from target identification to pre-clinical developments, and clinical trials
- The increasing complexity of drug discovery process is compelling the need for more sophisticated informatics tools and solutions
- Drug discovery informatics assists researchers discover new drug targets and develop improved therapies faster and more efficiently; enables researchers to communicate data and collaborate more effectively across disciplines
- The use of informatics tools can help decrease the cost and time of drug discovery and help researchers discover promising new drugs and optimize the development route
- Manage the risk related with drug development and help researchers make better decisions and optimize the drug discovery process
- Surge in use of cloud-based and big data solutions has driven the demand for drug discovery informatics
North America raked in lion’s share in the global drug discovery informatics market in the recent past. Besides technological advancements, government initiatives and growing R&D expenditure in informatics underscore growth in the drug discovery informatics market in the region.The presence of some global leaders, along with a measurably high number of contract research organizations (CROs)strengthen growth in North America.With surge in investment of pharma and biopharma players in R&D activity, drug discovery informatics market in the region is expected to continue to be on an uptrend.
Author Bio:
Shveta Garg is a senior content writer with experience of nearly a decade in content marketing. Shveta mainly writes in the areas of science and technology, consumer goods, and energy. She has contributed to various science and technology news sites with her leaning to stay updated with various developments in the field of science and technology. Her ability to write in an easy comprehensible yet interesting language turns on readers’ attention to ask for more interesting news stories.
Shveta has travelled and lived the US, UK, France, and India. She has a master’s in Operational Research from the University of Delhi. She lives in Pune with her family.
