Can AI help pharmaceutical companies plan for drug shortages?

Michael Walter | | Health Exec | Precision Medicine
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Merck KGaA, a Darmstadt, Germany-based pharmaceutical company, is hoping AI can improve its ability to predict drug shortages and plan accordingly.

The company says its current methods for forecasting supply and demand are 85% accurate, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, and it hopes AI can provide much more accuracy.

Drugmaker to Test Machine Learning to Prevent Drug Shortages

“The value is going to be that every single patient will receive the drug that he or she needs at the right moment,” said Alessandro DeLuca, CIO for Merck’s healthcare division, as quoted by the WSJ.

Merck is turning to TraceLink, a North Reading, Massachusetts-based supply chain company, to see if AI can make an impact. Merck plans on testing TraceLink’s cloud-based software platform later in 2019.  

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Michael Walter
Michael Walter, Managing Editor

Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.

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