'Precision medicine coming back in a big way'

Hyderabad: Upholding the important role of technology in drug discovery, is the return of personalised medicine, described also as precision medicine that enables administering different medicines to different patients suffering from the same disease, said Deepak Sapra, CEO, API and Services, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.

Delivering the opening address at DXEM 2024, a day-long summit on ‘Navigating Digital Transformation in Engineering and Manufacturing,’ initiated by Hyderabad-based Plural Technology, on Friday, Sapra said: “Technology enables drug discovery faster, efficiently and at lower cost. Through technologies such as AI and Machine Learning, the vast amount of data both drug and molecular data can be harnessed to build complex models to predict how drugs behave in the body.”

To prove his point on the role of technology in drug discovery he spoke about personalised medicine, which he described as precision medicine. “Medicine is tailored for an individual patient based on his or her predicted response or risk of disease. This is not new. It has existed for over a decade. But, it is making a comeback in a big way now,” Sapra said sharing examples of Mycin and IBM Watson.

Peter Bilello, CEO and president of CIM Data delivered the keynote address on Digital Transformation. In opening remarks, Sunil Savaram, Founder and CEO, Plural Technology, spoke about investing in technology to improve engineering efficiency. He said that South Korea spends 5.2 per cent of its profits on research and development, as against India that spends 0.8 per cent.

The day-long summit saw a panel discussion moderated by Dr Ramgopal NC, Technology and Innovation Director, Spantech Engineers. The panelists included Sudhakar Rao, APAC Head, Ui Path; Dr Rajaram Iyer, VP, Lauras Labs; Siva Kumar Rachakonda, president, Zetatek Group; Dhanraj Tirumala, Founder, CGI Simulations Pvt Ltd. Over 100 industries representing engineering and manufacturing sectors were present.