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AI Speeds Drug Trials, But True Cures Await
26 Jan
Summary
- AI helps streamline clinical trial recruitment and regulatory document drafting.
- Companies are betting AI will improve new drug success rates and cut costs.
- AI is augmenting intelligence, not yet creating novel drug molecules.
Artificial intelligence is currently streamlining administrative and logistical aspects of drug development, rather than directly discovering new molecules. Pharmaceutical companies are leveraging AI to accelerate clinical trial participant enrollment and the creation of regulatory documents, processes that are often labor-intensive and time-consuming. This efficiency gain is seen as a critical step in reducing the decade-long, multi-billion dollar journey of bringing a new drug to market.
Companies like Teva Pharmaceutical Industries view AI as a tool to increase overall efficiency, allowing them to focus on core drug development goals. Executives from major firms such as AstraZeneca, Roche, and Pfizer, alongside smaller biotechs, have noted AI's utility in managing vast regulatory documentation. Venture capitalists are also investing in AI solutions for drug development's complex middle stages, including patient outreach and screening.
While AI's impact on efficiency is becoming evident, with Novartis reporting significant time savings in site selection for a cardiovascular trial, the full measure of its effect on speeding up drug development is expected to take one to three years to quantify. Some, like Amgen's research chief, believe that AI-discovered molecules are already in development pipelines, even if the ultimate breakthrough drug is yet to be identified.
