Watson for Drug Discovery may be down, but AI in biopharma isn't out - MedCity News

The news last month that IBM would stop selling Watson for Drug Discovery due to lackluster financial returns did not come as a surprise to some executives in the field of artificial intelligence-led drug discovery and development. But, they said, that doesn't mean the field as a whole is in trouble. STAT reported April 18 that IBM would continue servicing existing customers, but would otherwise stop development and sales of the product, which the tech giant launched under a partnership with drugmaker Pfizer in 2016. The launch of IBM's Watson for Drug Discovery occurred as the idea of applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to the biopharma industry – particularly to aid discovery of new compounds – was beginning to take off in earnest. Since then, numerous companies have launched efforts of their own.