Siva Padmanabhan of AstraZeneca on AI identifying new ways to treat diseases

Siva Padmanabhan of AstraZeneca talks about using AI unlock data to identify new ways to treat diseases, technology easing access to healthcare and competitive advantage in the face of new players entering the market.
Siva Padmanabhan of AstraZeneca on AI identifying new ways to treat diseases As India Inc. rides on a digitization wave, healthcare and pharma sector too is very sensitive to the changes around. Be it in adoption of AI in clinical trials or digitizing patient records, the sector has had a ringside seat to the advancements brought about by newer technologies.

AstraZeneca is no different. Siva Padmanabhan, Siva Padmanabhan, GTC Head India & VP IT, Software Shared Services (SSS) is the man at the helm of innovation in the company. With 25 years of experience in Healthcare and Information Technology, Siva spent the first half of his career in the US, where he worked with Fortune-10 Healthcare major McKesson Corporation.

Over the last five years, he set up AstraZeneca's Global Technology and Shared Services Center in Chennai and Bangalore. Close to 2500 associates provide round-the-clock services for AstraZeneca entities worldwide from these centers.

In an exclusive with, Padmanabhan talks about how AI can unlock data to identify new ways to treat diseases, surviving in the face of competition and trends affecting pharma industry in 2020.

Edited excerpts:

How are you using AI to unlock data to identify new ways to treat diseases?

Bio pharmaceutical companies, globally have come to a realization that data will power the efforts to find discover new treatments in the future. With several decades worth of research data spanning molecules, trials and drug launches, we have a huge potential to answer hitherto unanswered questions using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The first step is to translate the vast amounts of information available in various forms into computable format, and the next step will be to unlock the data that resides in the "Omics".

Developing advanced AI in the area of Genomics and Chemoinformatics, the journey has already begun on unlocking the potential of data predominantly in the DMTA (Design-Make-Test-Analyse) cycle. This can be considered as a great example in early science is within Modelling & Simulation where computational power is used to guide the design of preclinical and clinical experiments leading to improved R&D success. Another example is Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), where a large amount of data (>petabytes) is being analysed to create novel insights and identify potential targets.

What are your plans for India?

In India, we are excited about our IDREAM platform, our co-innovation model in partnership with NASSCOM Center of Excellence – IOT, Business Sweden and Atal Innovation Mission-Niti Aayog, that aims to support innovative digital technology solutions that can transform the management of Non-Communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and asthma. We are supporting healthcare technology start-ups in exploring the potential of AI and other digital solutions to build frugal, scalable solutions that can transform the patient journey.

What are the trends that will affect healthcare and pharma industry in 2020 and beyond?

In my opinion, given the pervasive role of technology, there are a few emerging mega trends that will shape the sector across the value chain.

Some of these mega trends are:

1. A complete shift from reactive healthcare to wellness and well being which will center around the patient experience journey, where, personalized medicine is truly the future.

2. Changes in business models that could positively disrupt the markets – for example: Value-based pricing.

3. Increased accessibility to the medical system through the expansion of healthcare networks and leverage of technology – doctors truly without borders who are available just a mouse click away.

4. All of these will be driven by technology in the form of connected devices and IoT - be it wearable from a patient standpoint or Industrial IoT from a manufacturing standpoint to provide end-to-end mapping of the patient experience real time into the research process.

These shifting trends have made the industry rethink their value chain to make it more patient centric at every stage. Data, AI, ML, wearable are all being looked at as opportunities to get closer to understanding the patient’s journey. At the same time, from a manufacturing standpoint, digital solutions will become the new game changer to enable scale, accuracy and quicker turnaround.

With tech giants like Amazon making inroads into pharma, what would help you preserve competitive advantage in the market?

With the way markets are evolving and how customers are truly engaged in shaping the marketplace, I don’t believe it is either-or, I believe the future will be one of cooperation, where technology companies and pharma companies collaborate to compete and service the customers even more effectively. The rich data, deep research experience and well developed understanding of the patient - spanning several decades will be a major advantage for pharmaceutical companies.


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