24.03 Liontrust Global Innovation Report - The Rise of AI 04.24 - Flipbook - Page 28
T H E C O M I N G I M PA C T O F A I
AI – helping to speed up drug discovery
Can you imagine your employer enrolling every single one of your colleagues into a
mandatory AI learning academy? Healthcare giant Moderna has done precisely this,
tasking its entire workforce, all the way up to the CEO, to become fluent in AI.
It might be surprising that a healthcare company is pursuing AI
with such fervency, but Moderna is really a technology company.
It produces mRNA molecules, which, just like the software of a
computer, carry sequences of code. While computers follow
instructions in the form of the binary coding system of a series of
0s and 1s, the building blocks of life, proteins follow code in the
form of the four letters (or nucleotides) carried in mRNA. Four letters
might sound like a short and limited alphabet but it provides a
near infinite number of possible sequences with which to produce
proteins – and so drug discovery is really a mathematical problem,
which is ultimately cracked with data.
Wherever data is key, AI may be a powerful solution. Bringing
a drug to market can take over a decade, with only 8% of drugs
making it through Phase III clinical trials. One of the reasons
commercial success is so scarce is the challenge of predicting the
correct protein structure (for drugs to bind to in order to work) and
identifying the right compounds that bind to the specific protein site.
Yet AI is helping to predict the design of molecules that will achieve
the desired results in fighting illnesses from flu to cancer – leading
to potentially lifesaving outcomes for patients. Take Moderna’s RSV
vaccine candidate as an example (expected to come to market
in 2024, representing the company’s first non-Covid commercial
opportunity): using AI to forecast and ID for clinical trial enrolment
helped move the vaccine from the idea development phase to
phase III trials in just two years. This process typically takes six or
seven years.
It is early days for AI’s application in pharma, but we are starting
to see the benefits of improved production processes from early
adopters. No sector sees more R&D spend go to waste. R&D
consumes over 25% of sales on average in the industry,
yet 92% of drug approvals fail. At the same time, no
other sector holds more potential to change lives and
the economy in the 21st century. This makes the
potential of AI to drive this sector forward all the
more exciting.
28 - The rise of AI: Technology and Innovation Report
