How fast can you invent a medicine?

Abstract

Accelerating the invention of medicines continues to be an area of focused research and investment in industry, academia and other institutions. As we witness the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and the continuous automation of drug discovery, it leads one to question how quickly a medicine could one day be invented. In this futurist commentary, we explore what drug discovery could look like a several years, a decade, or a century from now. The recent coronavirus pandemic demonstrated that, with urgency, a novel small molecule medicine can be invented in little more than a year. Could this become a new norm? This commentary covers some of the state-of-the-art tools for drug lead identification and optimization, drawing corollaries to advancements in automative manufacturing. AI will clearly play a significant role in the future invention of medicine. Decades from now, when all our dreams of technical integration have been realized, how quickly could we invent a new drug?