According to the World Cancer Day the key cancer facts are that 10 million people die from cancer every year, at least one third of common cancers are preventable, cancer is the second-leading cause of death worldwide, 70% of cancer deaths occur in low-to-middle income countries, millions of lives could be saved each year by implementing strategies for prevention, early detection and treatment, and the total annual economic cost of cancer is estimated at $ 1.16 trillion. For all the above reasons, AI and ML techniques are breaking into cancer research and oncology, where the potential applications are vast, and include early detection and diagnosis of cancer, subtype classification of cancer, optimisation of cancer treatment and identification of new therapeutic targets. In particular, AI is predicted to change cancer health care by advancing clinical research and drug development. And besides cutting costs, improving trial quality and reducing trial times by almost half, AI is predicted to find novel cancer biomarkers and gene signatures, recruit eligible clinical trial patients in minutes and read volumes of text in seconds. Moreover, breakthrough discoveries involving new diagnostic tools for cancer have seen AI as a major player. The phrase "prevention is better than cure" is often attributed to the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus in around 1500, but prevention is now synonym to "it's cheaper too", since preventing future illnesses and complications is vital to the future sustainability of health systems and households as well.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may sound futuristic, but it already exists in many everyday technologies. For example, it gives our handheld devices voice and facial recognition capabilities. AI is also making its presence felt in biotechnology, where it has become integral to many aspects of drug discovery and development. AI applications in biotech include drug target identification, drug screening, image screening, and predictive modeling. AI is also being used to comb through the scientific literature and manage clinical trial data.

FirstWord MedTech's Digital Ten is a fortnightly round-up of the 10 most read and noteworthy headlines related to digital health, including industry deals, alliances, collaborations, innovations and R&D news. The biggest M&A deal inked this year so far comes from the telemedicine field with Teladoc Health agreeing to fork out $600 million to acquire InTouch Health, a provider of cloud-based telemedicine software and physician services for hospitals and health systems. Teladoc's existing telehealth service platform targets consumers and with this deal, it will gain a complementary business that is expected to generate revenue of $80 million in 2019, representing 35% year-over year growth, and a new facility-based virtual care platform. Mojo Vision's smart contact lens receives FDA breakthrough device designation In yet another first for 2020, Mojo Vision's Mojo smart contact lens is the first ophthalmic product to get FDA breakthrough device designation this year. The lens incorporates what the company describes as the "smallest and densest dynamic display ever made," along with a power-efficient image sensor optimised for computer vision, a custom wireless radio, and motion sensors for eye-tracking and image stabilisation.

Join us for Outsourcing-Pharma's upcoming editorial webinar, titled Real Use Cases for Artificial Intelligence: Where are we now? This discussion will feature expert insights from Sudip Parikh, PhD, senior vice president and managing director, Americas, DIA Global; Doug Peddicord, PhD, executive director, Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO); and Thomas Clozel, MD, co-founder and CEO, Owkin . The Real Use Cases for Artificial Intelligence webinar is sponsored by: Acorn AI (a Medidata company); OM1; ICON plc; and Elligo Health Research . For more information and to register for FREE, please click HERE . The industry, across the drug development continuum, has so far this year announced myriad new partnerships, strategic alliances, product launches, and reports.

Pfizer is working with Boston-based Concerto HealthAI for a collaboration that will apply Concerto's eurekaHealth artificial intelligence technology to precision oncology research. WHY IT MATTERS The partnership will use the AI platform to gain faster actionable insights for Pfizer's investigational therapies and commercialized therapeutics for treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, officials said. Romesh Wadhwani, executive chairman of Concerto HealthAI said his company's technology would be valuable to Pfizer in "finding and acting on meaningful insights in key cancer subpopulations." Much of the data for the initiative will come from clinical practices participating in the American Society of Clinical Oncology's CancerLinQ initiative; researchers will explore potential study designs for real-world data to develop therapeutics that are both pre- and post-approval, according to Concerto HealthAI, building on similar work done in collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A joint steering committee from both companies will oversee the work, with initial research expected early next year.

AstraZeneca announced a long-term collaboration deal with BenevolentAI, a UK-based company focused on combining computational medicine and advanced artificial intelligence. The two companies will focus on using AI and machine learning to discover and develop new drugs for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). "The vast amount of data available to research scientists is growing exponentially each year," stated Mene Pangalo, AstraZeneca's executive vice president and president BioPharmaceuticals R&D. "By combining AstraZeneca's disease area expertise and large, diverse datasets with BenevolentAI's leading AI and machine learning capabilities, we can unlock the potential of this wealth of data to improve our understanding of complex disease biology and identify new targets that could treat debilitating diseases." No financial details were disclosed.