In our top 10 of 2021, a recap of Pharma 4.0 sheds light on what technologies the life sciences industries can take advantage of. The article covers talks given by experts at the PDA Annual Meeting, and includes discussion of digitalizing paper records, making the most of data, and how AI can models can boost regulatory compliance. Paper is cumbersome and time-consuming, placing additional unneeded demands on the workforce, yet factories–and especially those in pharma–still rely heavily on its use. Referencing the Pharma 4.0 pillars, Langer pointed out that digitally native workers come into the workplace only to be brought into a culture which teaches them to use organization and processes that are centered on paper. This is a waste of ability to help transition into the digital era and serves only to create a workforce gap.

Robert Langer, the co-founder of Moderna and a lauded MIT professor, said, "We are at the tipping point of the modernization of drug discovery" and that the "Quris platform could be a significant value to pharma companies and the health of society at large." Langer is a member of the scientific advisory board of Quris, which officially launched this week and announced $9 million in seed funding to support its efforts. Nobel laureate Aaron Ciechanover is the chairman of the company's scientific advisory board. Quris, based in Israel and Boston, is an artificial intelligence (AI) company operating in the pharmaceutical space. Its team has developed an AI platform to predict which drug candidates will work most safely and effectively in humans.

Airlines are looking to artificial intelligence to turn age-old processes upside down and make flying more efficent. While the industry has traditionally relied on long-term planning across maintenance, schedules, crew and other areas, AI could mean a move to flexible processes. Lufthansa Group chief digital officer Christian Langer believes AI could spell the end of planning. "Airlines have an inflexible asset base - aircraft, hangars, spare parts - it's expensive and inflexible. Then, we have a very flexible customer base, so it's how do you mitigate that? He points to the long-term planning of crew and summer schedules, adding that airlines also typically plan for groups of things such as customer segments and part numbers. "With upcoming data, computational power and finally AI, it is going to shift from long-term to real-time and from groups of things to individuals, and this turns all the planning systems upside down." Speaking during last week's Aviation Festival in London, Langer says small companies were tackling parts of the equation such as Hopper and Flyr for price predictions and Dohop and Kiwi for the network side of things. "We're trying to rethink and rebuild all the planning systems we have to find out what would be the real-time, individual alternative.

LAS VEGAS--Complexity is the enemy of security, but prompt patching is its strongest ally. Security professionals have made those points for years, but two presentations at the Black Hat USA conference here provided fresh arguments for them--and signs companies are getting snappier at fixing vulnerabilities. What that means for you: When your computer, phone or tablet says it has an update available, install it. Don't wait to benefit from the tighter focus of an Apple, Google or Microsoft on security issues. Support for that came in one Black Hat briefing covering a "vuln" in Apple's device-management system that lets organizations configure Macs from afar.

Digital transformation is more than a buzz phrase for the enterprise. Technology is reshaping business in numerous ways, and the overall concern is that anyone without the newest tech in place will soon be left behind. This fear is not unfounded. "Digital is approaching a tipping point. Over the next five years, companies will begin to see digital affect the majority of their revenues. Most of today's companies are unprepared for this change," according to a Forrester report on the state of digital business.

Lufthansa Chief Digital Officer Christian Langer believes that AI is bringing an end to planning as the airline industry knows it, provoking a mixture of fear and excitement in his business and the sector. Langer is excited about AI because Lufthansa is rich in data. A single Airbus A350 produces roughly 1.5 terabytes of data per day and a single General Electric GEnx (General Electric Next-generation) jet engine produces 150 million data points on an average flight. This data can help Lufthansa improve its current services and develop new ones. He's worried about AI because it also creates opportunities for more nimble competitors to challenge the established airlines.