Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly looking to AI tools for everything from designing new experimental drugs to predicting the response patients will have to treatments. Merck Healthcare is also taking a cautious approach toward another hot trend, weight-loss drugs.
The market for obesity drugs is incredibly crowded and highly competitive, according to the Merck pharma chief. Instead, the company aims to concentrate on its three therapeutic areas of oncology, neurology and immunology. Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck has operations spanning electronics materials, life-sciences equipment and services, as well as pharmaceuticals. In the pharma business, which Merck houses under its healthcare segment, Guenter sees room for structural change triggered by AI.
Even if a compound shows promise in the simulations, it still has a long way to go to become an approved treatment. AI has already been deployed to develop new drug candidates, but most of the molecules discovered by the technology are still in early trials. Some have progressed to the mid-stage trials, particularly within oncology, which accounts for half of AI-discovered molecules in the first two phases of clinical studies, according to research by Boston Consulting Group.
A Morgan Stanley report from predicted that 50 new drugs developed thanks to AI would enter the market globally in the next decade. The number of clinical trials of experimental drugs where AI either discovered, designed or repurposed molecules, vaccines and target diseases increased to 67 in from 27 in , according to Boston Consulting Group data. Last September, the company forged alliances with U. Uncertainties about the safety and efficacy of AI-discovered molecules in clinical trials remain.
Humans will always remain the highest supervisory authority, supported, but not replaced by AI, he added. However, he hopes that the molecules selected with the help of AI will have a higher success rate in clinical development than in conventional research. For example, the algorithm of the new U. A separate collaboration with American-Israeli company Quris-AI should also help to eliminate molecules from the outset that could later damage the liver.
