Virtual Science AI Ltd

Virtual Science AI Featured in AlbionVC European HealthTech Market Map 2025

admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 08:23:09 +0000

We are thrilled to announce that Virtual Science AI has been featured in the prestigious 4th annual AlbionVC European HealthTech Market Map 2025, developed in partnership with HLTH Europe. This report identifies and showcases the leading start-ups that are actively transforming the European healthcare ecosystem through continuous innovation in care delivery and research.

The AlbionVC European HealthTech Market Map is a highly respected industry benchmark, meticulously analysing over 5,000 European companies across both digital care and digital pharma sectors. For the 2025 edition, the report specifically highlights companies founded in or after 2015, those that have secured institutional funding within the last three years, and have a team of over 10 employees. The map provides critical insights into emerging trends, particularly the transformative impact of AI across clinical workflows, virtual-first care, and drug discovery (TechBio).

Virtual Science AI is proud to be recognized within the ‘Data Aggregation’ category under Digital Pharma. Our inclusion underscores our leadership and innovation in leveraging AI to empower life science teams.

Being featured in this influential market map underscores the strength of our technology, the commitment of our team, and the tangible solutions we provide for the life sciences industry. It reinforces our position as a key player in the European HealthTech landscape, driving forward the use of advanced data analytics to enhance decision-making and accelerate progress in healthcare.

See the full report here.

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Struggling to get your pharma data AI-ready? You are not alone.

admin — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 13:12:06 +0000

In the first of a series of insights exploring AI adoption barriers faced by pharma companies, Chih Han Chen, Chief Technology Officer explores the challenges in preparing AI-ready data – and how partnering with Virtual Science AI can make the process quicker and easier.

A large pharma client’s medical affairs team recently approached us looking for more effective ways to derive insights from a data lake repository.

The patient-related data was disorganised and in a wide range of formats including text, video and audio files, making it difficult for their team to quickly analyse and gain actionable insights.

Our solution was to implement our digital insight management platform, which was able to collect the data, whatever format it was in, then clean it, label it, standardise it, filter out noise and analyse it.

As a result, the client was able to:

Save huge amounts of time looking for insights and answers to research questions.

Enjoy a better user experience when searching through a standardised filing system.

Save money and resources by not having to spend on costly in-house data cleansing.

This successful partnership highlights how pharma companies can use vendors to overcome one of the biggest barriers to AI adoption: having high-quality, AI-ready data.

Why this matters now

A recent survey by Bessemer Venture Partners found that an overwhelming number of pharma, payer and provider organisations see AI as a strategic priority and are investing heavily – with 95% believing GenAI will be transformative and 60% reporting AI budgets now outpacing IT spend.

While different pharma companies are at different stages of their AI journey, all are lured by the technology’s ability to create efficiencies and unlock insights by automating repetitive tasks, producing reports and summarising large volumes of data.

But it’s the readiness of that data which underpins the success of all AI tools. If it’s inaccurate, incomplete or hard to find and analyse, it can lead to outputs that are misleading, unreliable and biased. As a result, AI becomes untrustworthy, ineffective and inefficient – at best obscuring much-needed insights and at worst putting you at regulatory and reputational risk.

What do we mean by AI-ready data?

In order to get the best, most reliable outputs from AI tools, data needs to be:

Clean: Free from errors, inconsistencies and duplication.

Well-labelled: Consistent, meaningful labels and clear categorisation provide greater context and more relevant outputs.

Standardised: With data increasingly coming from different sources – like with our previously mentioned client – it needs to be turned into standardised, uniform formats.

Accessible and integrated: Too often data ends up in organisational silos, not only spread out across different systems, functions and geographies, but also hidden away in individual laptops and files. Standardised methods of data collection and centralised storage are essential if you want to realise your data’s full potential.

Compliant: The collection, storage and use of data is a complex legal area to navigate – even more so in the highly regulated pharma industry. Companies must take into account legal, regulatory, ethical and privacy concerns in the regions in which they operate.

The problem with preparing AI-ready data in-house

Despite the interest, ambition and investment in AI, many companies are still cautiously feeling their way. The Bessemer report highlights that pharma companies are still largely in the experimentation phase, running numerous proof-of-concepts, of which less than a quarter make it into production.

There are several reasons for this, including lack of in-house expertise and security concerns – topics we’ll explore in future insights. But almost half (47%) of the pharma companies surveyed said that preparing AI-ready data was one of the biggest hurdles to implementing in-house developed AI tools.

It’s easy to see why. Most pharma companies lack the tech resources to undertake the mammoth task of cleaning and organising their data, while some are spending millions of dollars to transform systems and launch data integration projects.

It would be much easier and more cost-effective to partner with a third-party vendor whose AI tools are specifically designed for pharma, meet regulatory requirements and, importantly, can do a lot of the data cleansing for you, so you don’t have to.

As our CEO Tom Hughes recently wrote about in Forbes, we’re starting to see a shift in mindset away from lengthy, costly in-house AI development, with “more strategically enlightened companies” moving towards a partnership approach and the benefits of speed, efficiency and cost-effectiveness that brings.

Unlocking an exciting future, faster

Artificial intelligence is evolving at an incredible pace. Today, AI is largely seen as a support tool, using past data to offer information on which a human can act. But in the future it has the potential to become much more of a strategic partner, fully integrated with our activities and working side-by-side with us in real time – almost like another employee.

In the near future, we could see an AI avatar moderating our meetings, offering advice through intuitive interactions, or joining in during a doctor-patient consultation to ask questions and make treatment recommendations.

Before we reach that point, pharma companies must eliminate as many of the barriers as they can to successfully adopt new capabilities. Partnering with experts who can help you do that quickly and at scale will accelerate AI adoption, bolster your commercial advantage and help more patients get the life-changing treatments they need.

In our next insight, we’ll look at the challenges pharma companies face in terms of building in-house AI expertise. You can find out more about Virtual Science AI’s solutions here.

The post Struggling to get your pharma data AI-ready? You are not alone. first appeared on Virtual Science AI Ltd.

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Reinventing The Wheel: Overcoming Obstacles To AI Adoption in Pharma

admin — Thu, 15 May 2025 13:43:39 +0000

While the adoption of generative AI-driven tools in industries like banking, retail, and manufacturing is occurring rapidly, the pharmaceutical industry is still playing catch-up.

CEO, Thomas Hughes recently engaged with Forbes about the critical need to overcome obstacles hindering AI adoption in the pharmaceutical industry.

Read the full article: Reinventing The Wheel: Overcoming Obstacles To AI Adoption In Pharma

The post Reinventing The Wheel: Overcoming Obstacles To AI Adoption in Pharma first appeared on Virtual Science AI Ltd.

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Insights At Scale: The Growing Value Of GenAI In Pharma

admin — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 11:05:05 +0000

Thomas Hughes, CEO at Virtual Science AI delves into the transformative power of generative AI for the pharmaceutical industry, highlighting its potential to revolutionize medical communications, accelerate drug development, and unlock valuable data.

Insights At Scale: The Growing Value Of GenAI In Pharma

Read the full article to discover Thomas’s expert perspective on how GenAI is reshaping the future of pharma.

The post Insights At Scale: The Growing Value Of GenAI In Pharma first appeared on Virtual Science AI Ltd.

The post Insights At Scale: The Growing Value Of GenAI In Pharma appeared first on Virtual Science AI Ltd.

MedTalk: All Things Digital

admin — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 12:44:07 +0000

The first episode of MedTalk is now live, hosted by Industry leaders, Parveen Jayia Therapy Area Head at AstraZeneca, Geraldine Reilly, Chief Customer Officer at Virtual Science AI and Andrew Donlon Global Marketing Lead at Virtual Science AI dive into the dynamic world of Medical Affairs.

Key topics explored:

How can Medical Affairs position itself as a strategic leader in the industry?
What defines a strong Medical Affairs partnership?
Why is it crucial to have this conversation now?
How can Medical Affairs lead the digital revolution?

Listen now to find out about all of these areas and hear opinions and thoughts from experts in the pharmaceutical field.

https://medtalkconvo.podbean.com/e/all-things-digital/

The post MedTalk: All Things Digital first appeared on Virtual Science AI Ltd.

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Medically Trained AI for Insights Generation and Communication

admin — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 06:43:49 +0000

Generative AI technologies are allowing Medical Affairs teams to find insights in more and more diverse data in less time and with more robust results. Here, MAPS speaks with experts from Virtual Science AI including CEO, Tom Hughes, Chief Customer Officer, Geraldine Reilly, and Chief Technology Officer, Hans Chen about how this word, “Generative,” has elevated the promise of AI — and how innovative Medical Affairs teams are leveraging these technologies to provide value for their organizations while driving patient benefit.

Learn More

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The post Medically Trained AI for Insights Generation and Communication appeared first on Virtual Science AI Ltd.

12 Questions with Chih Han Chen

admin — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 06:40:18 +0000

Chih Han Chen is a distinguished leader with a strong footing in data science and AI for the life sciences sector. With a PhD from Imperial College London and a Microsoft data science certification, Chen has played a key role in the success of AI products. As the CTO and a founding member of Virtual Science AI, his exceptional leadership and ability to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders is recognised industry-wide. His vision is to leverage advanced technology to empower stakeholders in the life sciences industry, aiming to drive significant transformation through the power of AI and data science.

What are the main responsibilities of your current role?

As the CTO of Virtual Science AI, my main responsibilities revolve around leading the technological direction and strategy of the company. This covers Technology Vision and Strategy, Product Development, Technical Architecture, Research and Development, Team Leadership and Management, Technical Due Diligence, and Compliance and Security. Overall, my role involves overseeing the technical aspects of the company, driving innovation, and ensuring that our technology aligns with our business strategy to deliver value to our customers and stakeholders.

What is your background prior to this role and how did it prepare you for the work you do now?

Prior to my current role as a CTO, I obtained a PhD in AI from Imperial College London and gained valuable research experience in the field. I then served as an AI Lead, where I successfully built and led multiple AI products specifically tailored for the life sciences industry. This background provided me with a comprehensive understanding of AI algorithms, models, and their practical implementation. Additionally, working in the life sciences industry allowed me to gain insights into the unique challenges and opportunities within the domain. I collaborated closely with diverse teams, including researchers, engineers, and domain experts, which honed my ability to bridge the gap between technical expertise and business requirements. Overall, my research background, coupled with my experience in leading AI initiatives for the life sciences industry, equipped me with the knowledge, skills, and strategic mindset necessary to excel as a CTO in driving technological innovation and leveraging AI for business growth.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment to date?

My proudest professional accomplishment to date is the successful development and adoption of AI products that I built and led for the life sciences industry. These products quickly gained traction and were adopted by prominent life sciences clients, making a significant impact on their operations, business decisions, and research endeavours. Witnessing the tangible benefits and positive outcomes resulting from the implementation of these AI solutions has been immensely gratifying.

What is your personal mission statement? What values keep you centred in your work?

Guided by my passion for AI and technology, my mission as a CTO is to be a catalyst for meaningful change in the life sciences industry, thereby establishing a legacy of enhanced patient outcomes. Innovation, integrity, and collaboration form the bedrock of my value system. I aim to continually push the boundaries of the possible, with a steadfast commitment to ethical decision-making. The essence of my work lies in creating a supportive environment that encourages diverse perspectives, fostering collaborative efforts to drive ground-breaking advancements. My overarching objective is to use the transformative power of AI to better patient lives, contributing to an enduring positive impact on global health.

What are your biggest short-term goals for this year and next year?

My immediate objective for this year and the next is to significantly scale and refine our Virtual Science AI medical AI functionalities, aligning our offerings with the unique demands of life sciences. Through collaborative engagement with domain experts, we will augment AI features to tackle specific challenges in the field. This enhancement aims to bolster data-handling capacities, optimising efficiency for larger datasets. Our overarching goal is to support enterprise-wide, data-driven decision making, which will ultimately lead to improved patient outcomes. This approach underlines our commitment to transforming life sciences with robust AI solutions.

What are your biggest long-term goals for five years or 10 years from now?

My biggest long-term goal is to establish virtual science AI as the leading and go-to data science and AI solution for the life sciences industry, driving transformative advancements, accelerating drug discovery, and improving patient outcomes.

What are the most important professional skills in your work and how do you hone them?

I value technical expertise, project management, and effective communication. These skills, sharpened by lifelong learning and real-world practice, are essential in our AI-driven industry. Equally important are consultative skills to understand our clients’ needs in this rapidly evolving landscape. Yet, beyond professional skills, I believe in the willingness to go the extra mile. This character trait, when combined with technical prowess and dedication, allows us to exceed expectations, innovating and delivering impactful solutions in a future shaped by AI

What excites you most about current industry trends?

What thrills me most is the accelerating use of AI in the life sciences industry. This movement promises to reinvent drug discovery, precision medicine, and healthcare delivery. To navigate the challenges in life sciences, we need to focus on improving decision-making processes. Harnessing AI can lead to quicker, higher-quality, and more quantitative reports. This not only expedites scientific advancements, but also enhances patient outcomes. It’s a thrilling juncture to leverage technology for need beyond existing boundaries.

What has changed most about the industry since the start of your career?

The most substantial transformation I’ve witnessed since the onset of my career has been the universal acknowledgement of data’s pivotal role in shaping the industry. This has led to the subsequent adoption of AI systems, which are primed on the concept of big data. This shift is of paramount importance as it has revolutionised our ability to utilise data more effectively. More importantly, this enhanced capability directly contributes to expediting the process of bringing crucial drugs to patients, thereby hastening treatment timelines and improving patient outcomes.

What are your hobbies?What do you do in your free time?

In my free time, I enjoy reading and exploring the latest technologies and games. I also find relaxation in listening to and playing the piano, which provides a creative outlet and a means to unwind.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

If I could have any superpower, it would be the ability to travel to the future and personally witness and experience the advancements of technologies and wonders that await humanity.

How do you manage health, fitness, and wellness in your life?

I prioritise my health, fitness, and wellness by engaging in regular workouts to maintain physical health and practicing meditation for mental well-being. These activities help me stay balanced, focused, and energised in both my personal and professional life.

The post 12 Questions with Chih Han Chen first appeared on Virtual Science AI Ltd.

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Virtual Science Releases Innovative AI-driven Product Features for Healthcare Stakeholder Advisory Engagements which Enables Life Science Enterprise-wide Insight Generation and Faster Decision-making

admin — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 22:44:48 +0000

The enterprise features of this platform enable the collection of all advisory board data sets from multiple activities, countries and stakeholder groups which helps identify and act on new insights more efficiently and effectively.
Virtual Science’s medically-tuned AI features deliver qualitative and quantitative actionable insights and analytics regarding advisory board interactive activities.
The AI application removes the need for costly and time-consuming medical report writing.
This platform is enterprise-scalable and designed to empower global and local teams, ensuring thousands of colleagues across companies can quickly share knowledge and drive action, bringing treatment to patients faster.

LONDON, March 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Headquartered in London and with operations in Europe and North America, Virtual Science creates cutting-edge software as a service (SaaS) in the life-science and healthcare sectors.

Tom Hughes, the CEO of Virtual Science outlines the impact that the AI platform is already having:

“We’ve developed a revolutionary approach to advisory board processes to help organizations move faster at scale, to make decisions that bring their treatments to patients that need them. This process can be continuous, and our medically tuned AI platform replaces the need for dependencies on complex medical writing to create an advisory board report.”

“It is a very exciting time for Virtual Science as we are working with world-leading pharmaceutical organizations. Senior leaders are seeing this approach as a smart way to speed up organizational decision-making, to get ahead of the competition.”

Chih Han Chen, Chief Technology Officer of Virtual Science and longtime expert in the field of AI, added:

“We have medically trained our AI platform to comprehensively capture and analyze healthcare stakeholder interactions. It is the first time that this technology has been used in the scientific advisory board setting, leading to smarter, faster enterprise-wide decision-making.”

Gathering healthcare stakeholder insights is often time-consuming, requiring a lot of deliberations and consultations. However, Virtual Science is working to help clients in the sector to enhance the process, ensuring a more seamless and faster process without compromising the quality of the decision or output.

These solutions equip life science teams to have compliant interactions with healthcare professionals, patient communities and decision-makers in a virtual environment that improves strategic decision-making.

For further information about Virtual Science visit: www.virtualscienceai.com.

About Virtual Science

Virtual Science is a global provider of external stakeholder interaction services in the pharmaceutical field, such as Advisory Boards. The company leverages its virtual platform and AI models to effectively enhance the engagement with stakeholders in R&D, Medical Affairs, Public Affairs, Pricing & Access, and Commercial life science and healthcare company functions.

Media Contact

Virtual Science
Andrew Donlon, Global Marketing Lead
United Kingdom, London
+44 (0)7919 172226
Andrew.donlon@virtualscienceai.com
www.virtualscienceai.com

The post Virtual Science Releases Innovative AI-driven Product Features for Healthcare Stakeholder Advisory Engagements which Enables Life Science Enterprise-wide Insight Generation and Faster Decision-making first appeared on Virtual Science AI Ltd.

Virtual Science AI Launches Virtual Advisory AI

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 00:03:08 +0000

Virtual Science AI announces the launch of Virtual Advisory AI, a virtual engagement platform designed to deliver the most effortless advisory board engagement experiences and the industry’s first AI-driven analytics following life science advisory board activities.

First in the life science industry to aggregate all interactive data from advisory boards and deliver AI-driven analytics on the trends, themes, and topics that matter
A virtual engagement platform designed to deliver the most effortless user experiences with customizable workflows to drive stakeholder engagement and improve insight generation
The platform is accessible via a web-based portal and through a mobile application, accessible anytime, anywhere

LONDON, April 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The team at Virtual Science AI is committed to helping improve the pharmaceutical industry’s engagement with its stakeholders, as the company launches Virtual Advisory AI. The virtual engagement platform offers a wide range of features, including synchronous, asynchronous interaction, co-collaboration tools and AI report generation capability.

Tom Hughes

CEO of Virtual Science AI

“As life science teams embrace hybrid work it’s an exciting time for virtual work solution providers to partner with teams to shape the ways of working with healthcare stakeholders for the better, we believe Virtual Science AI has built the next generation virtual engagement solutions that will move the needle on advisory board stakeholder experiences and insight management, Virtual Science AI is able to make sense of interactive data in ways that just have not been done before.”

“The asynchronous engagement allows the participants of the advisory boards to provide input in virtual work environments at a time suitable to their schedules. It enables the participants to engage asynchronously around their time schedule over say a 2-week period, rather than a pre-set intensive 6-hour advisory board, this evolved approach results in a higher level of engagement and higher quality deep work outputs.”

Advisory board decision-making process for any organization, irrespective of the industry, is often time-consuming, requiring a lot of deliberations and consultations. However, Virtual Science AI is working to help clients in the life science industry to enhance the process, so it is more seamless and faster without compromising the quality of the decision or output. The recently launched product will leverage Virtual Science AI’s virtual engagement and insight platform to enable the use of real-time and asynchronous, over-time engagement strategies to drive participant engagement and improve insight generation, leading to the generation of AI-driven insight reports on important trends, themes and topics relevant to life science teams.

The solution will equip stakeholders in the life science industry for compliant interactions with healthcare professionals, patient communities and decision-makers in a virtual environment without any barriers while improving strategic decisions. Virtual Advisory AI, a software as a service (SaaS) organization, improves on the current virtual advisory board solutions in the industry by providing medical and project manager led services that leverage the Virtual Science AI’s platform capabilities to run activities and delivers unique AI-generated insight reports collected from virtual engagement activities.

For further information about Virtual Advisory AI visit – www.virtualscienceai.com.

About Virtual Science AI

Virtual Science AI is a global provider of virtual advisory boards services in the pharmaceutical industry. The company uses its virtual platform and AI models to enhance the engagement with stakeholders in R&D, Medical Affairs, Public Affairs and Commercial life science company functions. The goal is to help shape how life science teams engage with their stakeholders for the better and utilize interaction outputs to improve critical decision-making at various stages of the product life cycle to help bring solutions to patients.

Media Contact

Virtual Science AI
Tom Hughes CEO of Virtual Science AI
United Kingdom, London
+44 (0) 7535599820
tom.hughes@virtualscienceai.com
www.virtualscienceai.com

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Virtual Science AI introduces new advisory platform

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 00:00:21 +0000

Virtual Science AI has announced the introduction of its Virtual Advisory Artificial Intelligence (AI) engagement platform.

The purpose of the platform is to provide a first-of-its-kind system for the healthcare sector, as it aggregates all interactive data from advisory boards, while delivering AI-focused analytics on critical themes, topics and trends in life sciences.

As an international provider of virtual advisory boards services in the pharmaceuticals industry, Virtual Science AI aims to improve critical decision-making at different stages of the product life cycle to help bring solutions to patients.

It uses this approach while promoting a better understanding of how life sciences teams work with stakeholders to produce meaningful results and outcomes.

The organisation uses its AI models and its virtual platform to improve stakeholder engagement in medical affairs, public affairs, R&D and functionality in commercial life sciences.

The Virtual Advisory AI – a software as a service organisation – platform has been designed to be user-friendly and accessible, with customisable workflows to improve the creation of insights and encourage engagement. It can be accessed through a web portal on desktop and via a mobile app.

The platform offers those working in the life sciences industry a new tool for online interactions with healthcare professionals, patient communities and decision-makers, without restrictions.

The platform has a range of features including synchronous and asynchronous interaction, co-collaboration tools and AI report generation capability. Additionally, the AI insight reports are able to ethically gather vital patient contributions.

Speaking on the launch of the platform, Tom Hughes, CEO of Virtual Science AI said “we believe Virtual Science AI has built the next generation virtual engagement solutions that will move the needle on advisory board stakeholder experiences and insight management”.

He added: “The asynchronous engagement allows the participants of the advisory boards to provide input in virtual work environments at a time suitable to their schedules. It enables the participants to engage asynchronously around their time schedule over say a two-week period, rather than a pre-set intensive six-hour advisory board.”

Typically, the process of advisory board decision-making is gradual, while further considerations and consultations are often required.

With the introduction of Virtual Science AI, the company aims to help clients in the life sciences sector to improve the advisory system, by creating a more seamless process without having to compromise on the quality of decisions or output.

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