Where Next for AI in Drug Discovery?

WITH the cost of bringing a new drug to market now an average US$2.6bn1 and one-in-ten drug candidates failing to make it to market despite successfully completing Phase I trials2, it is no wonder that pharmaceutical companies have seized on the unparalleled data-processing potential of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Their use in identifying compounds, some of which may have completed clinical trials already, that could be re-purposed to treat alternative diseases quickly and comparatively cheaply, is well documented. But as research scientists are beginning to find, AI systems are capable of achieving so much more. The potential applications of AI in drug discovery are almost endless, but one of the main areas of focus to date has been repurposing existing drugs. Typically, this involves finding new uses for drugs that have already attained market and regulatory approvals for the treatment of a specific disease.