Between 12 and 15 full years can pass from the time a program is started to find a drug until the national regulatory agencies approve its final commercialization. Furthermore, practically nine out of ten medications resulting from clinical trials are never authorized for consumption, a discouraging proportion, at least for laymen.
Experts estimate that bringing one of these products to market costs around 2.5 billion euros. For this reason, professionals are betting on the technologies of the fifth industrial revolution, because they want to be faster and less expensive. Of course, generative artificial intelligence (AI) is also being discussed in this sector.
According to the calculations of those responsible for the laboratories, this system can shorten the phases prior to experiments on people. After the discovery stage, when the molecules that can combat the causes of a disease are found, “preclinical tests” begin, carried out on animals. This progression can easily take six seasons of tasks.
To streamline this operation, pharmaceutical companies are turning to AI. Researchers from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), based in Massachusetts (United States), detected in February 2022 about twenty of these companies, most of them considerably young, that were working in this way.
In another study, carried out by BCG and Wellcome analysts, it is highlighted that this innovation can bring “time and cost savings.” And this calculation is even specified: “between 25% and 50%.” In any case, for this tool to be efficient, it must be provided with correct data. The spokespersons for the Insilico Medicine firm emphasize that they operate scrupulously like this, with all rigor.
This is one of the organizations observed from BCG. Well, these laboratories together accumulate more than 150 drugs in discovery or preclinical development. To understand the enormous relevance of this figure, it can be compared with the 333 pending projects that the twenty largest companies in the world have, taking into account their income per year.