< PreviousHEALTH, SAFETY AND HYGIENE 30 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.net companies are looking into the usage of AI, but it’s not without its controversies. According to the FDA, over 90% of safety events involving pharma products go unreported in the US. This is typically down to organisational strain as manufacturers struggle to audit and track millions of customers and their data. What makes this even more difficult is that many of these incidents are reported via human conversation, which can be difficult to track and quantify given people being emotional, afraid, etc. These reports rarely come in the form of tick boxes or easily entered data. AI used in healthcare is not all that new now. There’s been a lot of focus on streamlining patient response times by using AI to try and provide information quicker and only put the person through to a human operator if they exhaust their options with the AI. This is useful from a business perspective and also useful from a “saving lives” perspective, but it tends to be very controversial to the person in question. There’s a tendency for the end-user to think they’re on something like a call centre, and for them to want to speak to a human doctor because they believe only a human doctor can help them. In reality, this often isn’t the case as a human doctor would need to spend time looking up the case, familiarising themselves with it and then dredging up information to help, whereas an AI could do all that instantly, but there’s no easy way to address that problem. It’s not just an aversion to AI, but a deep-Pharma Business International 31 www.pbiforum.net HEALTH, SAFETY AND HYGIENE © stock.adobe.com/ihorvsn seated aversion to being “fobbed off” from a “real doctor” in favour of an intern, which is a frustration born of this being the typical practice in hospitals and GPs across the world in the last few decades. What AI can do that a human cannot, especially as technology advances, is listen to people and collate their information faster than a human could and then identify high-risk cases. These cases may then be passed onto a human operator, who will be provided case details and all relevant information by the AI so they can immediately help the person. Everyone in question would agree this is a good result, but it’s still difficult to prepare for the human element and, most worryingly, malicious actors. There will always be some who will think they can deceive the AI by making their situation sound worse so it puts them through quicker, and this could have knock-on effects influencing those truly at risk. Legal consequences to malicious use may have to be introduced, but that is a matter for governments and since it could be an unpopular matter, many will be unwilling to implement it and lose votes. Ultimately, AI can save lives, and the younger generations are more open to AI than older people – which may mean the problem solves itself in time. Reaching out to the older generations to explain and inform may help, but perhaps as AI becomes a more established and accepted part of our lives, that won’t become necessary.DigiPharma Connect 10 - 12 March Savannah, USA DigiPharma Connect is an intimate forum where senior digital marketing executives from top pharmaceutical companies can come together for exclusive networking with their peers and to source solutions from leading providers. Advanced Therapies UK 18 - 19 March London, UK Advanced Therapies UK is Europe’s largest commercial cell and gene conference and exhibition. Bringing together over 2,500+ industry experts, it is an event for the leaders of pioneering ATMP companies and their senior executives, who are in charge of the latest tech and strategies driving the industry forward. Pharma EVENTS © stock.adobe.com/nobeastsofierce © stock.adobe.com/Alpha Tauri 3D 32 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.net 6th Supply Chain & Logistics for Cell & Gene Therapies Summit 11 - 13 March Boston, USA As the cell and gene therapy (CGT) pipeline matures and new, exciting technologies scale into the clinic, the success of delivering the growing number of complex CGTs to patients in a safe and timely manner relies on robust and resilient global supply chains. Join the 6th Supply Chain & Logistics for Cell & Gene Therapies Summit for the ultimate practical guide on designing and implementing scalable, traceable, and resilient global supply chains. For the first time, this forum will cover the full breadth of end-to-end supply chain challenges across both cell and gene therapy, bringing leading voices across autologous, allogeneic, in vivo, and ex vivo programs. 8th Gene Therapy Development Summit 25 - 27 March Boston, USA The new and improved 8th Gene Therapy Advancing Life Science Construction 24 - 26 March Raleigh, USA As demand for life-saving therapies continues to surge, life science construction faces mounting pressure in 2025 to navigate supply chain disruptions, meet evolving FDA compliance standards, and deliver sustainable facilities on accelerated timelines. With 70% of projects exceeding budgets and facing delays, driving innovation in project delivery has never been more critical. That’s why the 3rd annual Advancing Life Science Construction 2025 conference will unite market experts and industry leaders from trailblazing contractors, clients and designers to address the most pressing challenges and capitalize on the latest trends shaping future life science manufacturing and R&D facilities. Development Summit, formerly known as the Gene Therapy for Rare Disorders Summit, will unite senior leaders from the likes of Pfizer, REGENXBIO, Vertex, Vivet Therapeutics, Carbon Biosciences, Beam Therapeutics, and the FDA to tackle the field’s biggest challenges of achieving genuine scalability and accessibility to meet growing patient demand. LogiPharma 8 - 10 April Lyon, France AI, sustainability goals, heightened geopolitical risks and increasingly complex products are creating new challenges and opportunities in pharma and med tech supply chains. This is the largest global meeting place of leaders from across the supply chain to benchmark and build strategies. CPHI Japan 9 - 11 April Tokyo, Japan CPHI Japan is the ultimate meeting place for suppliers and buyers from the entire pharmaceutical supply chain. CPHI Japan brings leading pharma professionals together to network, learn and conduct vital face-to-face business. www.pbiforum.net Pharma Business International 33 World ADC London 3 - 6 March London, UK Returning for its 15th anniversary year, World ADC London is the leading European conference uniting over 1,000 ADC enthusiasts to maximise the therapeutic index of ADCs. Whether you are brand new to the field or have over a decade of experience, work in discovery or manufacturing, hold a strategic position or work day-to-day in the lab, this meeting offers something for you. © stock.adobe.com/peterschreiber.media Tumour Models Summit Nordics 9 - 10 April Stockholm, Sweden The inherent heterogeneity of cancer - both inter-patient and intra-tumoral – remains a significant challenge in cancer modeling. With only 5% of cancer drugs successfully advancing to clinical trials, there is a critical need for more accurate and predictive models to guide therapeutic development. For the first time, the Tumour Models Summit Nordics unites pharma, biotech, and research leaders across the thriving Nordic biotech ecosystem to tackle this challenge head-on. As the region’s only industry-led event of its kind, this summit provides a rare opportunity to connect with top experts in preclinical and translational research. FEATURES Transport & Logistics Labelling, Coding & Marking End of Line Packaging Clinical Trials Waste Management Next issue: Deadline - 2nd April 2025 REGULARS News Events M&A Round-up Eye On Approvals Visit us at www.pbiforum.net where you’ll find the latest news as it breaks – and why not subscribe to our newsletters so you can have the latest news emailed to your inbox, in between digital issues? @pbiforumwww.pbiforum.netcompany/pbiforumNext >