What are In Silico Trials?
The term In Silico Trials refers to a new type of technology that uses computer modelling and simulation to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new medical products, for example new drugs or new medical devices.
Such technologies have been widely used for decades in safety-critical sectors such as Aerospace and Automotive, to test the planes we board on and the cars we drive with the result that they are safer than they were before the introduction of modelling and simulation.
How can in silico trials be used in the healthcare industrial sector?
THE ISSUE
There are currently many challenges that the healthcare industry is facing, for instance biomedical product development and assessment is still predominantly based on long and complex experiments in vitro, on animals, and then on patients during clinical trials, which pushes development costs to unsustainable levels, stifling innovation, and ultimately driving the cost of healthcare provision to unprecedented levels.
THE SOLUTION
Computer simulation (also called In Silico), which is already widely used for the development and de-risking of several “mission-critical” products (e.g., civil aircraft, nuclear power plants, etc.), could be successfully applied to clinical trials too.
The in silico approach has many advantages: it can reduce the investment needed to bring a new product to the market, bring it to the market faster, while also increasing its safety and efficacy.
Above all, these technologies and methodologies can make niche therapies and ad personam therapies available for all, despite differences in income, social status, living country, race, and cultural origins. In silico can truly be expected to bring about interesting and fruitful enhancements.