The Challenge
The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a transformative shift, as large companies increasingly collaborate with specialized smaller firms to accelerate drug design and innovation. This symbiotic relationship leverages the agility and niche expertise of smaller firms, while benefiting from the resources and infrastructure of established pharma giants. API-driven communication plays a pivotal role in these collaborations, enabling seamless and efficient data exchange between organizations. APIs help bridge the gap between various platforms and systems, paving the way for secure and standardized data sharing. This has given rise to API monetization, where companies leverage the value of their APIs to generate new revenue streams and foster innovation. By embracing this dynamic ecosystem, the pharma industry is poised to unlock new frontiers in drug discovery and development. However, this opens them up to a broad range of risks – reverse engineering, inference attacks, vulnerability of API endpoints, to name a few.
The team’s comprehensive approach to IT reference architecture resulted in an easy-to-use and effective IT landscape, showcasing the value of a well-planned framework.
The Approach
In response to these challenges, the project team had the objective to identify and mitigate data-leakage risks when deploying models trained on proprietary molecules behind public API endpoints. Through a literature review potential attack scenarios were assessed, and then tested and evaluated for risk of reverse engineering of proprietary molecules. A python library was developed to assess model security, and security measures were implemented in the client application.
Identifying and mitigating data leakage risks for a global pharmaceutical company to unlock new frontiers in drug discovery and development
The Result
The outcome of this project is the effective protection against reverse engineering of proprietary molecules, ensuring that the collaborative efforts between large pharmaceutical companies and smaller specialized firms continue to flourish without exposing sensitive data to potential threats. By addressing these risks head-on, we are contributing to the ongoing transformation of the pharma industry and fostering the innovative spirit that drives new discoveries in drug design and development.
Let’s create sustainable change together.
