Intellectual Property Considerations for Drug Discovery Via Artificial Intelligence

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in various stages of drug discovery holds enormous potential for the pharmaceutical industry, and investment in AI drug discovery technology has doubled annually over the past five years.1 AI companies seeking customers, partners, and investors have sought to capitalize on this excitement by touting various proprietary platforms that use AI in some way. Pharmaceutical executives would be wise to consider what intellectual property (IP) issues may arise from the use of AI-based platforms for drug discovery. Proprietary platforms are offered by many AI companies for various aspects of the drug discovery pipeline, and the use of such platforms can accelerate timelines and reduce expenditures. The various models applied by such platforms can be used for target discovery; identification of chemical structures likely to bind a target; design of de novo molecules; lead optimization to enhance effectiveness and diminish potential toxicity; and profiling a compound's absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination (ADME). Artificial neural networks can be trained to perform virtual screening or to facilitate traditional high-throughput screening assays by the automation of data collection and analysis.