Big pharma seeks digital solution to productivity problem - FT.com

Since the rise of modern medicine, the pharmaceuticals industry has relied on the brainpower of chemists and biologists to discover and develop new drugs. Their painstaking work has brought about dramatic advances in human health yet the slow pace of progress has prompted a search for new approaches. As in so many areas, some of the most promising ideas are coming from Silicon Valley. In the era of big data and artificial intelligence, could computer algorithms provide a short-cut to the next generation of medical breakthroughs? Among the pioneers of computer-based drug discovery is a Californian company called Verseon.