Healthcare projects are leading the pack in decentralized science.

In the race to decentralized science (DeSci), healthcare projects are competing against other sectors.

Alex Dobrin, an awareness specialist at VitaDAO — a decentralized collective working to extend human lifespan — told Cointelegraph that this is at least in part because the time and cost of bringing new drugs to market is “inspiring people to take science and drug discovery into their own hands.”

There is a “growing sense” that biomedical research and development are “failing patients”.

While technology has improved, the time and cost of bringing new drugs to market is “dramatically increasing,” he said.

The medical professional knows this as “Irom's Law,” a reversal of the commonly known Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every two years.

Irom's law observes the opposite effect, with the cost of drug discovery doubling every nine years.

On August 15, the research organization Onchain Foundation examined 60 decentralized science projects and found that 61% are in the healthcare space.

Decentralized drug effect

Dobrin pointed out the real potential benefits from DeSci. He said he would bring cheap and fast medicines. why? Because DeSci is more capital efficient.

Asher Loy, co-founder of blockchain and AI diagnostic tool BitDoctor.ai, believes that decentralized medicine has the potential to significantly improve existing systems.

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“By sharing insights about clinical trial performance and using these insights as a collaborative tool, clinical research can be more efficient while keeping sensitive commercial IP confidential,” Loe told Cointelegraph.

Loy sees blockchain applications in the clinical trial phase, supporting the recording of clinical trial data on the blockchain, making it time-stamped and immutable.

Better tests

LoE outlines three main areas where decentralized models can have a positive impact: supply chain, trial recruitment and licensing.

According to Lui, healthcare offers decentralized models because “accurate and timely information is critical.”

We are seeing a very positive impact on the patient experience. First, patients with unmet medical needs can easily access and match clinical trials by sharing their electronic health records. “On the other hand, pharmaceutical companies can access this information to ensure that the right patients are included in their clinical trials.”

Lui points out that time is of the essence because “patient ineligibility and dropouts are key causes of clinical trial delays.”

Dobrin shows how patients can tap into the lucrative pharmaceutical market.

“The next logical evolution is to use decentralized funding to create more structured clinical studies and accelerate the path from ‘bench to bedside,'” Dobrin said.

“The genie is out of the bottle now that people are realizing that they have medicines born of their efforts. And it's only a matter of time until the next billion dollar drug hits the chain.

In the year By 2023, the total value of the pharmaceutical industry will be 1.6 trillion dollars, which is an increase of 100 billion dollars compared to the previous year.

Positive from COVID-19

The Covid-19 pandemic was a disaster not only in health care, but in many other ways as well.

But in the end there were some small victories that could be beneficial for patients. Loy cited data management as one of these areas. According to Loy, data sharing “clinically and epidemiologically” has improved significantly.

In turn, this model has led to the question of why it cannot be widely applied to all disease areas. Lui said:

“I believe we're on the cusp of data sharing that's been sparked by the pandemic, but beyond that we're going to go into all the areas of unmet medical need.”

“Pharmaceutical companies and the public understand that information sharing does not mean sharing the secrets of their research, but rather sharing learning and knowledge for the benefit of all.”

The integration of DeSci

In the future, the lines between decentralized and centralized medicine may begin to blur as the healthcare industry adopts a one-size-fits-all model.

According to Dobrin, one day, as “seamlessly integrated” as the Internet, no one will need to ask for or interact with it. [the underlying code] HTTP”

“Through funding, the traditional scientific industry risks early-stage science using DeSci to get the research to the point where it's investable,” Dobrin said.

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One example of this is VitaDAO, which raised $4.1 million from Pfizer Ventures in January 2023.

“Rather than spending big money to create an internal research unit that is still uncharted territory in the field of science and largely unproven, they would rather throw some capital at The DAO and get the research line going,” Dobrin said.

It integrates seamlessly – wallet, data and all these things are completely isolated, just like the internet is today – no one asks or has to interact with HTTP.