AI could revolutionise healthcare – here’s how to cash in
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In February 2023 at a concert in Dubai, world renowned DJ David Guetta, used artificial intelligence (AI) programmes to replicate rapper Eminem’s vocals, adding them to one of his tracks. The song went viral. Guetta pledged never to release the track commercially, but demonstrated that using AI to produce song lyrics in the style of any artist may be the future of music.
Of course, there are ethical concerns about AI fakes and machines that do human tasks. But AI’s real value doesn’t lie in imitating humans – but doing things humans can’t.
When used responsibly, its ability to analyse vast amounts of data in seconds, automate repetitive tasks and make informed decisions has the power to transform industries for the better. This can deliver real value to people and society.
A great example is a sector that hasn’t been given much airtime in the AI discussion: healthcare.
AI could offer pharmaceutical companies a once-in-a-century opportunity to prevent and cure some of the world’s worst diseases.
Speeding up the discovery of new drugs and treatments, advancing clinical trials and speeding up the process for regulatory approvals will reduce patient suffering and increase survival rates.
Here are three glimpses of human health in the future.
Finding new drugs: Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Around 90pc of new drugs fail. And success in one drug doesn’t increase the likelihood in another. You start from scratch each time.
Traditionally, it takes over 10 years to research, create and produce a drug ready for patients. A big chunk of that time involves clinical testing and getting government approval.
And it’s expensive. In 2020 the global pharmaceutical industry spent nearly $200bn (£158bn) on drug research and development. Yet the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved just 53 new drugs that year. So each new drug cost nearly $4bn.
Enter Recursion Pharmaceuticals – a company revolutionising how we find drugs and medicine that work.
Recursion uses AI and machine learning to analyse vast amounts of biological data. This helps to identify potential treatments for multiple diseases, by understanding the underlying genetic causes. It’s like using a highly sophisticated computer programme to sift through a massive puzzle, finding pieces that fit together to combat illnesses.
Instead of finding out that a drug doesn’t work after a decade of development, testing and huge costs, Recursion’s super-computer can work this out in hours, days or weeks.
Co-founder of Recursion, Chris Gibson, believes AI can slash the cost and timeframe for discovering new drugs. This means that Recursion can go after diseases that are rare or hard to treat, which in the past, when using traditional methods, were not considered to be commercially viable ventures.
Intelligent cancer treatment: Tempus Labs
Another company at the vanguard of AI in healthcare is Tempus Labs. With a vast database of more than seven million clinical records from cancer patients, Tempus is using AI, machine learning and the latest genetic sequencing to create a detailed picture of how people with cancer have been treated and what the results were.
What can we do with this huge source of information? It can help doctors to decide on highly personalised treatments that give their patients better chances of survival.
For example, if a patient has a specific type and stage of cancer a doctor can examine their genetic data, then use the database to identify the treatment and medication which were effective for others with a similar genetic make-up.
Tempus has collected masses of disparate, messy and disjointed data, then used its own version of ChatGPT to make the data structured, searchable and scrutinised. These new insights have enormous clinical value. Tempus founder Eric Lefkofsky describes AI as a giant catapult to his business, like how the smartphone was a tectonic shift for Facebook.
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The cancer drug game-changers: Moderna
Moderna has been misunderstood as a one-trick-pony based on the Covid-19 vaccine. But chief executive Stéphane Bancel says that Covid was never in the business plan.
This is a company that was built from the start as a “digital first” business, with AI at the heart of its technology.
Moderna uses a computer app to create molecules from silicon that mimic human molecules – this is known as messenger RNA (mRNA). When injected into the body these copycat molecules instruct our cells to produce the antibodies needed to fight off viruses, unwanted bacteria and potentially, cancerous tumours.
Undoubtedly AI has helped Moderna accelerate vaccine development. In 2020 it took only 10 minutes for Moderna’s software to design the Covid vaccine. Months later it was rolling out millions of doses to fight this deadly virus sweeping the globe. The programme also figured out how to adjust the vaccine for mutations.
The more its drug platform is used, the more data it collects, and the more it learns – so the more accurate and powerful its results become. MRNA can be used to create vaccines we haven’t had before, for a host of viruses that can lead to health complications in later life.
The company is now making progress in oncology to create personalised cancer vaccines for what is a very individual disease.
It uses gene sequencing, the cloud and AI to read the DNA of healthy cells and compare them to the DNA of cancerous ones in someone’s body. Armed with this new information, when mRNA is injected, it “teaches” the immune system to detect the cancerous cells that it missed before – and destroy them.
Developing a vaccine that can reboot your immune system has the potential to be a game-changer for treating cancer.
The enormous advances being made in AI are just one part of the story. AI is flourishing at a time when life sciences and healthcare are also transforming. Developments in gene editing, cellular biology, immunotherapy, and stem cell research are allowing scientists to manipulate human biology in many new ways.
We are at a moment in time of serious breakthroughs and scalability in health and medicine. Applying a Silicon Valley mentality to developing drugs has the potential for smarter, faster healthcare, with predictable, repeatable, and effective treatments. The improvement for patients is not just marginal, it’s exponential.
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Claire Shaw is a director of Scottish Mortgage, one of Britain’s largest investment trusts
