AI in Pharma

In 2024, we saw the expanded use of synthetic data and natural language processing transform drug discovery and development. In a batch of predictions published in December of 2023, one expert predicted that synthetic data was set to “take off” in drug research. In 2025, the pendulum could begin swinging back the other way, according…

Alzheimer’s clinical trials are among the most challenging and expensive studies to conduct with a 2021 study pegging the total costs since 1995 at $42.5 billion. Phase 3 trials are the biggest cost drivers, involving hundreds or thousands of participants. “We’re talking about studies with sometimes two thousand people per phase three clinical trial in…

NVIDIA was founded in 1993 when Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem met at a Denny’s restaurant near San Jose. With just $40,000 in starting capital, they sketched out their vision for the company over diner food. In its early days, the silicon chip industry was laboratory-based, empirical-based. Since then, the industry has shifted…

Featured on the cover of Nature Machine Intelligence, one of Iambic Therapeutics‘ AI platforms, known as NeuralPLexer, can accurately predict protein-ligand complex structures. The platform excels at predicting the complex 3D structures formed when proteins bind with drug-like molecules. In a benchmark study featured in the publication, NeuralPLexer outperformed other systems, including AlphaFold2, in its…

In an exclusive interview with Drug Discovery & Development, Astellas Pharma CEO Naoki Okamura and Chief Scientific Officer Yoshitsugu (Yoshi) Shitaka shared details about its new $90 million, 154,000-square-foot biotech facility in South San Francisco. The new Astellas facility will serve as a central hub for Astellas’ Bay Area employees and be pivotal for the…

Last week, Google DeepMind launched AlphaFold 3, a significant update to its predecessor, AlphaFold 2. The latter has profoundly influenced structural biology and biomedicine in recent years while also attracting some skepticism. While AlphaFold 2 could accurately predict the structures of vast swathes of proteins, AlphaFold 3 ups the ante. It offers higher accuracy and…

The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) recently unveiled the launch of the CDER Center for Clinical Trial Innovation (C3TI), which aims to drive clinical trial innovation. When asked to assess the potential impact of the center, Charles Fisher, founder and CEO of Unlearn, said: “The truth is, I don’t know. I’m sort…

Isomorphic Labs and Google DeepMind have unveiled AlphaFold 3, a powerful AI system that draws on a novel diffusion-based architecture to accurately model the structures of complexes containing proteins, nucleic acids, DNA and RNA strands, small molecules, ions and modified residues. Diffusion models are a type of generative model that has won significant popularity in…

Deloitte’s 14th annual report on pharma innovation reveals a modest uptick in R&D returns for 2023, with the projected internal rate of return (IRR) for the pharma sector rising to 4.1% after hitting a low of 1.2% in 2022. Yet the report emphasizes the need for biopharma companies to adapt to ongoing challenges and leverage…

Atomwise’s AIMS (Artificial Intelligence Molecule Screening) project has demonstrated significant potential to accelerate drug discovery. In a landmark multiyear study published in Nature Scientific Reports, the project used Atomwise’s AI platform, AtomNet, to successfully identify structurally novel compounds across a diverse range of therapeutic targets. In the virtual high-throughput screening (HTS) study, AtomNet analyzed 318…

In a packed panel discussion at GTC, moderated by NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang, the architects of the groundbreaking transformer model gathered to explore their creation’s potential. The panel featured seven of the eight authors of the seminal “Attention Is All You Need Paper” paper, which introduced transformers — a type of neural network…

In episode 4 of Ai Meets Life Sci, Kayleen Brown, managing editor at DeviceTalks and Brian Buntz, pharma and biotech editor, chat with Helen Merianos, Ph.D., head of R+D portfolio strategy at Sanofi and Michelle Longmire, MD, CEO of Medable. The focus? The two-fold application of AI in their respective companies’ technologies, both for scientific advancement…

Amgen has developed a machine learning platform to slash clinical trial times through smarter site selection. Known as ATOMIC, short for Analytical Trial Optimization Module, the system crunches disparate datasets to predict optimal trial locations, expedite enrollment and trial processes. Early results indicate more than a two times increase in enrollment speed at ATOMIC sites.…

The tale of digital pharma and biotech in 2023 is one of two realities. In one corner, you have AI and digital-focused startups and sometimes executives at Big Pharma companies with grand AI ambitions proclaiming the power of the technology. But on the other side of the pharma-AI coin is a more cautious crowd. Here,…

A vision for data-driven drug development in oncology When Peter Carr, principal software architect of Lantern Pharma, stepped into his full-time role in September 2020, the company was on the cusp of a transformation. While AI had been a focus for a number of years, a fresh infusion of cash provided a possibility of expanding…

In drug discovery and development, data sources are as diverse as they are plentiful. There are comprehensive databases brimming with molecular targets, cellular processes, genomic sequences, proteomic profiles, and metabolite patterns that shed light on disease pathways. Data possibilities in the patient care realm are similarly vast, spanning electronic medical records, imaging datasets, and even…

The venture capital firm Artis Ventures, founded in 2001, coined the term “techbio” sector to describe biotech platforms where technology and engineering take the lead in advancing drug discovery and biomanufacturing. In circa 2019, the firm contributed to shaping the techbio landscape by setting up venture capital fund named Artis techbio that bridges the gap…

Imagine a world where botanical drugs could shape the future of medical treatment. Saad Harti, CEO of Swiss company Legacy Healthcare, doesn’t just imagine it; he’s on a mission to make it a reality. With an initial focus on alopecia areata in children and adolescents, Legacy Healthcare believes the plant extract Coacillium could be a…

Roughly nine out of ten clinical trials fail as a result of factors such as lack of efficacy and unmanageable toxicity, as the journal Pharma Excipients has noted. After seven years of development, Insilico Medicine has scored a breakthrough with its generative AI tool, inClinico. In particular, the tool demonstrated 79% accuracy in predicting the…

Interest in generative AI has skyrocketed in 2023. While the generative AI market is already substantial, worth $10 billion in 2022 according to Grand View Research, it is set to balloon by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.6% from 2023 to 2030.  It’s no wonder that a slew of companies — including Exscientia,…

The French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has unveiled a new AI-powered app called Plai, developed in partnership with AI platform Aily Labs. This move is part of Sanofi’s plan to become the pioneer in fully integrating AI into all operations, according to CEO Paul Hudson. Plai, designed to compile and process Sanofi’s internal data from various…

In drug discovery, the process of shooting for regulatory approval can feel less like a sprint and more like a marathon, but with no guarantee of crossing the finish line. Despite the hefty investment of time, effort and resources, the success rate for bringing new drugs to market hasn’t improved in recent decades. The American…

As cloud technology matures, life-sciences companies are finding new avenues for business value in life sciences, extending beyond the cost efficiencies typically associated with cloud migrations, as McKinsey noted. In an email statement, Microsoft outlined how its own cloud computing, AI and research capabilities are driving similar innovation for biopharma companies. This article explores Microsoft…

In the rapidly evolving landscape of quantum computing, Microsoft is pushing the boundaries with its Azure Quantum platform. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently announced, “Our goal is to compress the next 250 years of chemistry and material science progress into the next 25,” Nadella said. The executive also noted that, thanks to recent advances…

Cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing is rapidly transitioning from scientific curiosity to clinical reality. But the manufacturing complexity of CGTs far outpaces traditional biologics production, presenting a multifaceted challenge that is part scientific, part technological. “The manufacturing process for cell therapies and gene therapies is infinitely more complex than it is for let’s say,…