One in five men and one in six women worldwide develop cancer during their lifetimes, the International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates. Treatment remains a major challenge; many of the most promising drugs can be destroyed by the body when taken orally, so they must be administered with high-volume injectors—an invasive procedure that has required administration by a healthcare professional in a clinical setting.
IASO, a combination product developed as a demonstration project by Dassault Systèmes, illustrates the potential for leveraging emerging and transformational technologies in a virtual experience platform to eliminate this requirement and create significantly improved patient outcomes.
“The next frontier for us is to transform the patient experience,” said Claire Biot, vice president of the Life Sciences industry at Dassault Systèmes. “We not only want to achieve better efficacy and safety, but we also want to improve patient comfort and adherence, which is why we created IASO.”
Named after the Greek goddess of recovery, IASO sends a mobile notification to the user when they should proceed with their treatment. It then injects cancer drugs into the bloodstream through the patient’s arm, monitors the efficacy of the treatment in real time and generates data for later analytics. Patients self-administer the drugs when prompted by the device, avoiding frequent, life- disrupting trips to hospitals or clinics to receive their infusions.
Enabling efficient development
Stakeholders in the life sciences industry face the daily challenge of meeting ever-increasing patient expectations, keeping costs low and complying with industry regulations. IASO showcases how scientifically accurate 3D modeling and simulation technology can address these challenges and improve the lives of patients.
“Modeling and simulation enable us to evaluate the impact of a product before it is produced,” Biot said. “These technologies can help us craft the next generation of therapeutics, like IASO.”
IASO was brought to life through cross-disciplinary collaboration enabled by Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which increases innovation potential to deliver more enriching product experiences faster than ever before. All stakeholders in the project were able to leverage 3D design, simulation and testing capabilities via the platform, easily sharing ideas and making refinements to achieve the best possible outcome for the patient experience. The platform also provides robust predictive analytics tools that use existing experimental results to optimize therapeutic efficacy, predict potential issues and accelerate time-to-market, making better treatments available faster.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform supported the online, collaborative creation of multiple simulated models to ensure and optimize IASO’s operational ability in the real world. These simulations measured variables that included the device’s skin adhesion properties, how it would fare when dropped, its electromagnetic field and the pump’s flow rate.
Simulations save time and money and ensure that therapies perform as they should, giving patients much-needed peace of mind.
