Eli Lilly Will Use AI to Speed Up New Drug Development
/By Crystal Lindell
Eil Lilly is hoping its next major pharmaceutical breakthrough comes via artificial intelligence (AI). The company recently announced a partnership with NVIDIA, which makes high-performance computer chips that are essential for AI.
Lilly said the two companies “will work to build the most powerful supercomputer owned and operated by a pharmaceutical company.”
That supercomputer will power what Lilly calls “an AI factory” that will be used to run millions of experiments so it can test potential medicines, speed up drug development, and improve clinical trials.
“Lilly is shifting from using AI as a tool to embracing it as a scientific collaborator," said Thomas Fuchs, Senior VP and Chief AI Officer at Lilly.
"By embedding intelligence into every layer of our workflows, we're opening the door to a new kind of enterprise: one that learns, adapts and improves with every data point. This isn't just about speed, but rather interrogating biology at scale, deepening our understanding of disease and translating that knowledge into meaningful advances for people.”
Lilly hopes to leverage the supercomputer to shorten drug development from years to months, which would help get new medicines to people faster.
For example, with advanced medical imaging, scientists can get a clearer view of how diseases progress, so they can develop new biomarkers for more personalized care.
"The AI industrial revolution will have its most profound impact on medicine, transforming how we understand biology," said Kimberly Powell, Vice President of Health Care at NVIDIA. "Modern AI factories are becoming the new instrument of science — enabling the shift from trial-and-error discovery to a more intentional design of medicines.”
One of the advantages of using AI in drug development is that it reduces the need for testing new medicines on animals, which has long been a sore point for animal rights activists.
"We are getting to the point where we don't actually need to do that (animal testing) anymore," Patrick Smith, President of Drug Development at Certara, told Reuters.
Analysts say AI-driven approaches to drug development could cut costs and timelines in half, which could lead to lower drug prices. It currently takes over a decade and $2 billion to bring a new drug to market.
NVIDIA and Lilly did not disclose financial terms of the deal. Lilly said some of NVIDIA’s equipment has already arrived at its Indianapolis data center. Lilly expects the supercomputer to be online by January.
