The US biotech’s DB-OTO has made headlines worldwide after a baby with profound genetic deafness experienced improved hearing to normal levels within 24 weeks after a single intracochlear injection.

Sales of the Swiss firm’s Zevtera are set to rocket after the beta-lactam antibiotic got approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. Now Basilea needs to sign up a commercial partner.

Machines are now generating molecules that “no human would have imagined,” heard delegates at the BioAsia 2024 summit in Hyderabad, as big pharma and tech leaders discussed the many ways in which AI is causing fundamental shift in R&D approaches.

The digital “agent” on the horizon will draw on users’ entire health record, data from wearables and other sources to steer them in making health decisions. In this second part of a two-part series, Andrew Trister, chief scientific officer and chief medical officer at Verily, discusses his vision for the future and current obstacles.