The big data revolution: the high price of a force for good

In the intervening years British biotechs have been springing up in the fertile space between drug development and big data, including genomics data specialists Congenica and Eagle, while firms like E-Therapeutics use artificial intelligence to help discover new medicines. Not to be outdone, FTSE 100 behemoth AstraZeneca has plans to map 2m genomes within a decade. Dr Jurgi Camblong, founder and chief executive of Sophia, says his firm could ultimately map the genomes of 50m cancer patients alone a year, helping identify the genetic traits that contribute to the disease. He hopes more data sharing will lead to positive behavioural change in healthcare provision. "My father was sick and for my mother it was a nightmare," he says.