Drug Development in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: Very Near Yet Too Far

Development of a new therapeutic compound from discovery to market approval remains a long journey involving decades of research and development (R&D) and costing approximately $161 million to $4.54 billion (Schlander et al., 2021). However, recent decades have witnessed unprecedented and contemporaneous progress in computational technology, engineering, material sciences, multi-omics and biochemistry. This progress presents a very exciting opportunity to accelerate biomedical research and efficiently translate the same to meaningful shortening the time to market for drugs urgently needed for diseases that represent a huge burden to people suffering from these diseases and society at large. This article presents a review of the key advances in computational technology, medical engineering, material sciences, and multi-omics that are enabling a paradigm shift in drug development through all its stages with a potential for meaningful acceleration to meet the present significant unmet need in multiple diseases.