As scientists around the world race to see if they can come up with a vaccine for the coronavirus, one thing is clear to the experts at ML6: artificial intelligence can help. ML6, a machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) expert with offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK, says its tools can help life sciences companies find new drugs to test, match patients with trials and improve quality controls in manufacturing highly-regulated medicines. 'The playing field in which life sciences companies operate is getting ever harder,' explains Simon Logghe, life sciences industry lead at ML6. 'Typically, to develop a drug, test it and bring it to market can easily take more than 15 years for a pharmaceutical company. With patents only lasting 20 years, there's a small margin to win the investment back. A lot of drugs don't even get into the commercial phase as they don't get through the clinical trial period.

ML6 technology is being used to stop wine being wasted. ML6 might sound like a spy agency but it does not want to be a secret service – this young, Dutch business wants to blow open the mysteries of machine learning and show companies within multiple industries how data can solve their challenges. From allowing financial services to detect fraudulent transactions to improving cancer diagnosis, ML6's self-learning solutions aim to help leading businesses and give them the competitive edge they need. 'We help companies that struggle with unlocking their data in an intelligent way,' says Steyn Heskes, country lead in the Netherlands. 'However, we also partner with industry front-runners who want to use state-of-the-art machine learning to stay ahead.