FDA Eyes Technology Upgrades to Keep Pace With New Treatments (1)

An incoming “tsunami of data” has the FDA readying a plan to upgrade the technology it uses to evaluate new medical treatments.

The data modernization plan released Sept. 18 is the first in a series of steps to keep up with the pace of biomedicine, as the number of applications has surged. There are 800 cell and gene therapy investigational new drug applications on file at the Food and Drug Administration right now, and at least 200 new applications are expected each year by 2020.

With the FDA’s workload growing, the plan explores using blockchain, artificial intelligence, and secure cloud ...