How artificial intelligence is the future of pharma

 By Professor Jackie Hunter*

There needs to be a fundamental shift in drug discovery and artificial Intelligence holds the key to bringing the pharma industry into the 21^st Century.

The current drug discovery process needs to shift dramatically in order to meet the needs both of society and patients in the 21^st Century. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning in particular, present the pharmaceutical industry with a real opportunity to do R&D differently, so that it can operate more efficiently and substantially improve success at the early stages of drug development.

The long term benefits of this will mean that the vast resources and money used to develop drugs in the current process will be deployed more effectively to give not only a better return on the investment but also a substantial increase in the delivery of new medicines for serious diseases.

The current drug discovery process – too lengthy and very expensive

It can take up to 15 years to translate a drug discovery idea from initial inception to a market ready product. This contrasts with the rapidity of innovation in other industry sectors.