Drug Makers Harnessing AI For Next Wave Of Innovative Medicines

Fitch Solutions expects these firms to tie up with tech companies to boost AI in the pharmaceutical industry.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — Large pharmaceutical manufacturers are expected to continue investment in advanced technologies for drug discovery by working with tech companies, according to Fitch Solutions.

The research firm’s latest industry trend analysis also said the pharmaceutical companies would collaborate with data-driven health care-focused start-ups.

“Despite the broad applications of AI (artificial intelligence) across the whole spectrum of drug development (eg clinical trials), its application in drug discovery perhaps holds the most significant potential,” Fitch Solutions said in a press statement.

“This is because AI addresses two key critical factors in the highly competitive pharmaceutical market; expedited pre-clinical development times, which subsequently lead to meaningful patent lives and revenue gains, as well as breakthrough discoveries of novel targets or molecules, which could potentially lead to differentiated, high-value therapies.

“The latter is especially important considering that governments around the world will continue to implement health care cost-containment efforts, and stakeholders (eg payers, patients) will increasingly demand more proof about the value and the cost-effectiveness of the therapies in question.”

The analysis included observations on four pharmaceutical firms, namely AstraZeneca, GlazoSmithKline, Novartis and Pfizer, and their respective strategies and initiatives in adopting AI in their businesses and products.

“At Fitch Solutions, we believe that AI will play an increasingly important role in the pharmaceutical and health care industries as the pressure to prove the effectiveness of their products and services keeps increasing,” said Fitch Solutions.

“Adapting to technological changes and adopting advanced technologies early will be key for outperforming in the pharmaceutical market, with late adopters bound to trail behind.”

You may also like