Megacorp GSK inks AI drug development deal with Brit firm

GlaxoSmithKline has announced a research deal with British company Exscientia to use artificial intelligence to identify drug targets. The deal will see GSK fund Exscientia’s research into AI-driven drug discovery, paying out up to £33m if it hits all its targets. GSK has tasked the firm with identifying molecules that have …

[NorthernCoder]

I, for one, welcome our new AI drug overlords.

[HCL]

AI for Drug Discovery

Good approach. This is the way forward for future.

[John Smith 19]

Remeber all those reports about AI taking white collar jobs.....

Guess what this..

Needless to say any reduction in the costs of developing a new drug (which given the approximate 4x increase in the speed of the process should be substantial) won't be passed on to the customers.

[DocJames]

Re: Remeber all those reports about AI taking white collar jobs.....

Drug costs are not related to the cost of development; they are related to what the company think the market will bear.

See: Gilead's hepatitis C drugs, which are awesome (ie cure the disease in 12 weeks most of the time). The price they've been set at reflects the costs of a liver transplant. This is ~10^3 times the cost of manufacture... luckily we (thanks to the US Senate) have their internal documents discussing what price to set, and R+D costs don't feature there at all.

Icon: I always think it looks like someone rifling through someone else's coat pockets