by Thomas Meek
LONDON, Mar 14 (APM) - Pharma companies need to trust young people working in IT in order to develop the field of personalised medicine, said former director general of Italian medicines regulatory agency AIFA Luca Pani on Tuesday.
Pani, a member of the European Medicines Agency (EMA)'s advisory committee CHMP, said at an EMA workshop that the pharma industry needs to develop its IT capabilities to make use of the opportunities offered by big data and advances in technology, to provide personalised treatment for patients.
To do this requires IT employees who have knowledge of biological and medical fields, a group which is "rare and young" said Pani at the workshop, which focused on personalised medicine and was streamlined online.
However, big pharma companies "do not trust young people," he continued, adding that this was a mistaken view and that this group can be a "breath of fresh air" for the industry.
Pani added that the industry has been behind the times when it comes to use of digital technology, saying that for the past 20 years companies had thought IT was "printer maintenance".
Some companies are making progress in the area, however, with Pani noting recent agreements between Biogen and Google on multiple sclerosis and Sanofi and Janssen on diabetes monitoring tools.
"We are in the beginning of a transition," he said.
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