Open-source software in pharmaceuticals – ‘tomorrow’ really is now

This article is originally published at https://www.mango-solutions.com

It’s mostly preaching to the converted to say that ‘open-source is changing enterprises’. The 2020 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) Report found that 99 per cent of enterprise codebases audited in 2019 contained open-source components, and that 70 per cent of all audited codebases were entirely open-source.

Hearts and minds have most certainly been won, then, but there are still a surprising number of enterprise outliers when it comes to adopting open-source tools and methods. It’s no surprise that regulated industries are one such open-source averse group.

It’s still difficult to shake off the reputation open-source resources can have for being badly-built, experimental, or put together by communities with less recognisable credentials than big players in software. When your industry exists on trust in your methods – be it protecting client finances in banking, or the health of your patients in pharma – it’s often easier just to make do, and plan something more adventurous ‘tomorrow’.

This approach made a certain amount of sense in years past, when embracing open-source was more a question of saving capex with ‘free’ software, and taking the risk.

Then, along comes something like Covid-19, and the CEO of Pfizer – who are now among those leading the way in a usable vaccine – singing the praises of open-source approaches back in March 2020. Months down the line, AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s 70 percent-efficacy Covid-19 vaccine emerged. AstraZeneca is having a public conversation around how it’s “embracing data science and AI across [the] organisation” while it continues to “push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines”.

Maybe tomorrow has finally arrived.

At Mango, our primary interest is in data science and analytics, but we also have a great interest in the open-source programming language R when we’re thinking about statistical programming. We’re not attached to R for any other reason than we find it hugely effective in overcoming the obstacles the pharmaceutical industry recognises implicitly – accessing better capabilities, and faster.

With a growing number of pharmaceutical companies starting to move towards R for clinical submissions, we thought it would be useful to find out why. Asking experts from Janssen, Roche, Bayer and more, we collected first-hand use cases, experiences and stories of challenges overcome, as well as finding out how these companies are breaking the deadlock of open-source’s reputation versus its huge potential for good in a world where everything needs to move faster, while performing exceptionally.

Watch the full round table recording here.

If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch and we’d be happy to continue the conversation.

The post Open-source software in pharmaceuticals – ‘tomorrow’ really is now appeared first on Mango Solutions.

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This article is originally published at https://www.mango-solutions.com
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