Over the past few years, businesses are digitizing their operations on vast scale, and pharmaceutical sector is no exception to this. Digitization comes with its own set of challenges such as gathering massive data, analyzing it and using the analyzed data to decipher complicated data challenges. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to overcome these challenges. Organizations are using AI technology to handle immense volumes of data with better automation, generate data driven insights, mimic human intelligence and much more.

The wide range of benefits offered by AL is increasing its adoption in almost every business. Today, many leading pharma companies are leveraging AI technology to enhance their processes of manufacturing, drug research and development. A news portal predicts that nearly 50% of global healthcare companies will be adopting AI technologies by 2025.

But why are pharma companies increasingly adopting AI? What is the role of AI in drug discovery?

Let’s get to know through this article. Read on to understand the role of AI in drug discovery, how AI is helping modernize the traditional drug research method and how the overall drug discovery process has become faster, better and cheaper with AI technology.

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Applications of AI in Drug Discovery

Why are pharma companies using AI in drug discovery?

The traditional process of finding medicines is complex, lengthy, and expensive. The time taken for developing a new drug varies from 10-14 years with an investment of about 3-4 billion USD. This time and cost estimation covers all the phases from research to manufacturing of a drug. However, by using the true potentials of the various resources of AWS cloud, and the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms and techniques, we can significantly reduce the time and cost to an extent. Some of the AI aspects that contribute to quicken the drug discovery process are:

• Data analytics capabilities of AI in drug discovery let researchers to swiftly navigate through loads of data points that can help gauge the target molecules’ capabilities.
• AI in drug discovery is expediting the analysis of massive medical data sets, generate data-driven insights, and predict future needs.
• Predictive analytics capabilities of AI contribute to identify and develop accurate chemical compositions, speed up trials and decide which new drug to manufacture.
• AI is contributing to manufacture good quality medicinal products, filter and employ best-matched patients for clinical trials and enhance the protection and efficiency of drugs during clinical trials.

All these aspects are accelerating the whole process of drug research and development making new drugs available in market at less cost and in shorter time. That's why pharma companies are increasingly using AI in their drug discovery and development programs.

As per a recent survey the global artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.6%. Some of the major reasons leading to the increased use of AI in drug discovery are detailed below.

1. Novel Drug Discovery

2. Optimize Drug Manufacturing

3. Predict Precise Drug Composition

4. Faster Clinical Trials 

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Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is accelerating drug discovery and development by contributing to the faster processing of immense data, better drug design, impelling modernization, enhancing clinical trials, and supervising drug management. This will eventually reduce the new drug’s cost and time to market. Just like any other sector, healthcare and life sciences are also exploring the plethora of benefits that cloud computing offers. 

Leveraging the cloud and AI in drug discovery is helping to turn impracticality into reality. However, many organizations are still skeptical about using these technologies. Some of the major challenges in adopting artificial intelligence by pharmaceutical industry are a lack of substantial amounts of data or budget for small companies, lack of skilled staff that can operate cloud and AI-based platforms, etc. These challenges can be solved with the help of industry experts and service providers who can help you design the right AI or cloud strategy in line with your business goals that too within your budget. Looking at the value adds that AI is capable of, ignoring to adopt it will only delay the huge benefits that AI can bring to your business. 

Do you want to explore the immense possibilities that AI can bring to your business? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your company. 

Book a 1-hour free consultation with pricing details. 

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