Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data and blockchain will impact the pharmaceutical industry, not only by adding value through personalized treatment for patients, but also to counteract the unsustainability of skyrocketing drug prices, says data and analytics company GlobalData.
Prescription drug prices have been skyrocketing over the past decade at a significantly higher rate than inflation. One of the reasons for soaring drug prices is the fact that the cost of drug development has been rising significantly and drug developers are struggling to achieve the return on their investments. The average timeline for a drug to be developed from discovery phase to market launch is about 15 years, and the total number of new molecular entities (NMEs) commercialized per year does not match the extraordinary R&D cost for the company.
One of the most time-consuming phases in the process of drug development is the discovery phase, which takes four to five years on average. Identifying promising drug targets is one of the biggest challenges and this is the most crucial phase, where the right decisions have to be made about whether to proceed through to clinical trials.
Highly developed AI programs now have the increasing capacity to delve into big data, identify patterns, and generate algorithms to explain them.
Dr Valentina Gburcik, cardiovascular and metabolic disease director at GlobalData, says: “These programs can help researchers generate more accurate hypotheses faster, making the drug discovery process less expensive and more effective. In addition, the database of electronic medical records and public health data can be analyzed to identify hidden patterns that can lead to a quick identification of potential molecular targets for a disease.”
