As Big Pharma adds AI technology to bolster drug development, a cadre of new, upstart biotechs are pushing drug discovery to new heights.
No more is artificial intelligence a neat little program to speed up your writing. In the biopharma world, AI has become essential to everyday operations—capable of shaving billions off the laborious drug development process.
This has become evident as CEOs at the highest echelons of pharma are asked on earnings calls about how AI is shaping their processes. In responding to one such question, Pfizer’s Albert Bourla described how AI has helped the company integrate Seagen, which it acquired for $43 billion in 2023.
“We view AI as the structural transformation opportunity for driving substantial acceleration of our R&D pipeline, greater speed and productivity across our business and an improved competitive position for Pfizer,” Bourla said in early August.
Wikimedia Commons, Abhiram Juvvadi
Our ambition is to build an AI-native R&D organization where every insight from target discovery through medical evidence continuously informs the next decision.
He’s not alone in his thinking.
“AI is driving measurable efficiencies across our R&D and operations,” said AstraZeneca’s Pam Cheng, EVP of global operations and chief sustainability officer on a recent sustainability call. “It can actually help shorten drug development lead times, automate manufacturing processes and deliver earlier and more precise healthcare, all of which support sustainability and equitable care outcomes.”
As pharmas rebuild to integrate AI into every facet of the business, the line between tech and pharma is blurring.
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Bring on the biotechs
At the same time Big Pharma is looking to tech giants to solve bottlenecks in the drug development process, a new generation of upstart biotechs are launching with AI at their core. Capable of pumping out drug candidates backed by machine learning, these companies have become some of the hottest targets for licensing deals, with Lilly, Merck, Sanofi, AstraZeneca and others hungry to tap into this new technology.
Lilly partner Insilico Medicine is one such biotech breaking barriers. The company has inked billions of dollar’s worth of deals, thanks to a lightning-fast drug discovery engine and an online shop-like menu of available programs for partnering. CEO Alex Zhavoronkov told BioSpace all about the company’s journey, promising more deals to come.
We are basically the ultimate AI drug dealer, so to speak.
Companies like Insilico have been so successful, they have created a sub-genre of biotech: TechBio. Alphabet subsidiary Isomorphic Labs, Salt Lake City’s Recursion Pharmaceuticals and the venture capital darling Xaira Therapeutics are members of this new class.
Many of these companies have been operating in private, keeping their discoveries close to the vest save for a few public pronouncements of new AI model breakthroughs. Few have public pipelines or assets in the clinic, with Insilico being an outlier.
Nevertheless, venture capitalists can’t get enough. Xaira launched with $1 billion in 2024 and Isomorphic raised $2.1 billion in May—the second largest biotech round ever.
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Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published as a special edition of Biopharm Executive on August 26. Subscribe now to receive our next Deep Dive.
