Few of us even register the huge impact that science has on us every day. The long history of advances in pharmaceuticals that keep us healthy, or the creation of the materials that keep us warm or safe, are developments that rarely few of us ponder deeply in our daily whirl.
As a tool for handling, investigating and analysing vast amounts of data, AI has no equal. The chemical industry, and particularly the pharmaceutical sector, has come to appreciate the impact of AI in terms of identifying new compounds, leading to new materials and therapies as well as new routes to manufacture for both new and existing compounds.
Chemical regulation has been near or at the top of every chemical company’s agenda for the last couple of decades. The EU’s Regulation – Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, better known as Reach – was designed to provide protection for human health and the environment across the EU, which then included the UK.
Our industry is seeing significant change. The pressures of delivering net zero and the drive for sustainability have once again spotlighted science-based innovation as a key driver for future growth and value. Whilst many CEOs are reassessing their innovation portfolios and capabilities, countries are also assessing how best to capture future investments as these innovations scale.
In 2023, the US pharma sector recorded the second ever highest level of new drug approvals since 2018. A total of 55 novel drugs were approved by the Food & Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), nearly 50% more than in 2022.
Globally, the chemicals sector continues to grapple with high energy prices, high interest rates and a weak economic outlook. Add to that the continuing conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East. Meanwhile, 2024 is not just an election year, but the election year, with 64 countries and the EU headed to the polls. Read the leader article from Sharon Todd, SCI's CEO.
While the news is full of stories about the impact of AI on manufacturing and finance, for example the concept cryptocurrency, some researchers are looking to use the technology to delve into the origins of life on Earth – a subject that has exercised many researchers over the decades.
What is keeping top managers awake at night at a time when the challenges seem to come from all directions, and all at once? Is it climate change or financial problems, or is it the global economy or finding or creating the best staffing solution, or even the long-term viability of the business? What, for example, will be the impact of AI on the business? Can the business survive?
In the race to build capacity for European battery production, the UK has not been at the front of the pack. The past couple of years have seen projects being announced and then falling by the wayside, in many cases due to a lack of consistency in the UK Government’s approach. There have been promises of funding support which have then melted away.
US concerns about drug shortages and the likely impact of pricing measures within President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act have previously been reported in these pages. Nationwide shortages of over 128 medicines including some antibiotics and a number of chemotherapies have reached such a point that Republicans in the US Congress have taken action to pressure the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for answers to what they describe as a failure by the FDA to ensure these critical drugs remain available in pharmacies.