Artificial intelligence is taking shape as a major revolution in biopharma, from drug discovery to clinical trials. The wheels of technology spin quickly, and as the seeds of AI germinate, leaders are wrapping their heads around how far it’s come and where it’s going now.
Dr. Lynda Stuart, who serves as the inaugural president and CEO of the Fund for Science and Technology, a new venture capital group with a mission to foster sustainable tech innovation in biotech and other areas, has watched AI go from a fringe idea to a real-world effort.
“It’s an interesting time for the AI field in biotech because there’s a massive transition from a nascent technology to being a real tool that you can use,” Stuart said. “That transition from the theoretical to the real demonstrates an enormous opportunity for good — to define responsible use and mitigate risk.”
Stuart hearkens back to early days in the field. The FFST is part of the “Paul Allen ecosystem,” referring to the late entrepreneur best known for co-founding Microsoft with Bill Gates who began to push programming into the AI realm before his death in 2018. She also worked with biochemist David Baker, who won half of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside the founders of AlphaFold. His ideas, considered revolutionary now as AI takes center stage, weren’t always seen that way, Stuart said.
“[Baker] had this crazy idea that he was going to design proteins from scratch — everyone thought he was part of the lunatic fringe,” Stuart said. Now, the FFST estimates it will provide $150 million in grants aimed at AI by the end of next year.
There is always a process of hitting the gas and pumping the brakes on new technology, Stuart said, and the FFST is trying to find that line, calling for a mindset that puts AI on the right track for innovation but keeps potential hype in check.
“To understand and address this tension in innovation is to set up a framework that is agile enough to allow innovation to move at the pace it should move and then know when to regulate,” Stuart said. “We’ve proposed something called an ‘if-then’ framework, where if certain capabilities are reached, then you deal with them — but you shouldn’t get all panicked about something that’s 10 years away.”
Tradition vs. progress
A paradox of the pharmaceutical industry is that, while cutting-edge science drives every significant advancement, leadership is sometimes less enthusiastic about embracing the new ways. Financial and regulatory risk play a role in that tension.
“This was my obsession and focus for many years,” said Dr. Mathai Mammen, who served as head of R&D at pharma juggernaut Johnson & Johnson. When the AI revolution was still operating in much smaller computer science circles, he promoted using datasets and machine learning to enroll clinical trials, for instance.
“Ten years ago, I started seeing the evolution in technology and the convolutional neural network technology take off with the availability of electronic data,” Mammen said. “I knew this would yield a revolution, whether on the drug discovery or drug development side, and when I came to J&J, this became a mantra and something important to try and drive.”
Now, as CEO of the biotech Parabilis Medicines, Mammen recalls the resistance to AI, even though company leaders broadly supported the concept.
Still, full buy-in took time and was hard won, Mammen said.
“For some people, there’s a tried-and-true approach, and they feel there’s too much company and personal risk in rationalizing trying something new,” Mammen said. “That collective experience of being successful is in some ways a source of resistance, and the more experienced and successful a place has been, the more resistance there might be.”
Mammen said he was able to “drive through” that resistance with like-minded executives at J&J by focusing on near-term problems. That meant drilling down on the use of data rather than implementing rudimentary tech before the company was ready to jump in.
The journey from nothing to becoming a leading data science organization in pharmaceuticals is a testament to the transformative power of innovation and forward-thinking leadership. Johnson & Johnson’s success in this realm can be attributed to the strategic deployment of cutting-edge tools and a progressive mindset that positioned them as early adopters in the industry.
Sanofi, on the other hand, recently unveiled a state-of-the-art campus in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, signaling their commitment to staying ahead of the curve in both scientific and technological advancements. The new facility was designed not just to meet current scientific needs but to anticipate future developments, particularly in the field of immunoscience. With procedures that once took months now completed in weeks, and the ability to analyze multiple structures a day using AI and large datasets, Sanofi is embracing the potential of data-driven innovation.
As Matt Truppo, global head of research platforms and computational R&D at Sanofi, emphasized, the key to staying at the forefront of the industry is to build with a forward-looking vision. The rapid evolution of new models in academia and industry requires agility and the ability to test, evaluate, and internalize these advancements quickly. Collaboration among scientists and company leaders is essential, as is the integration of human intuition alongside AI tools to ensure that the traditional scientific process remains intact.
Dr. Lynda Stuart, CEO of the Fund for Science and Technology, highlights the importance of grounding data science initiatives in real science to prevent hype from overshadowing tangible results. While embracing new technologies and methodologies is crucial for progress, maintaining a focus on empirical evidence and learning from failures is essential for sustainable growth.
In conclusion, the journey towards becoming a leading data science organization in pharmaceuticals involves a combination of strategic vision, technological innovation, collaboration, and a commitment to scientific integrity. By embracing the potential of data-driven decision-making while staying rooted in core scientific principles, organizations can navigate the ever-evolving landscape of pharmaceutical research and development with confidence and success.
