Strong Intent to Adopt AI in Drug Development, But 67% Have Zero Specialists

AI Drug Research Institute Survey of Pharmaceutical and Bio Industry
89% of Respondents "Already Using or Planning to Introduce AI"
Strong Demand for Talent Development and Data Platform Support

Demand for harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) in new drug development is rapidly growing in the domestic pharmaceutical and bio industry, but the number of skilled professionals to support this trend remains severely lacking. Although 89% of survey participants reported that they are either already using AI or considering its adoption, as many as 67% responded that they have no AI specialists in their new drug development departments.

The AI Drug Research Institute of the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association announced on July 31 that it had found these results after conducting a sample survey targeting 55 stakeholders from 44 organizations, including domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies, AI specialist firms, academia, and research institutions, centered around the AI New Drug Development Expert Committee.

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Of the 55 respondents, 26 (47.3%) said they are currently utilizing AI in new drug development. In terms of usage method, 10 reported direct internal utilization, 9 said they outsource externally, and 7 indicated they use both approaches in parallel. Meanwhile, 23 respondents (41.8%) answered that they are considering or planning to introduce AI. Only 6 respondents (10.9%) said they have no plans to use AI.

AI was mainly used in the stages of discovering and optimizing new drug candidates. When multiple-choice questions were posed to the 26 respondents already applying AI, 15 each cited candidate identification and candidate optimization as fields of application. Eleven reported compound identification, 9 mentioned mechanism of action analysis, and 8 named target identification and validation.

When asked which therapeutic fields they hope to apply AI to for drug development, synthetic drugs accounted for the majority with 27 respondents (49.1%). This was followed by biopharmaceuticals and antibodies with 12 respondents (21.8%), targeted protein degraders (TPD) with 6 (10.9%), antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) with 5 (9.1%), and drug delivery systems (DDS) with 3 (5.5%).

Despite strong willingness to adopt AI, there is a lack of AI specialists on the ground. The majority, 37 respondents (67.3%), stated that there are no AI experts in their new drug development departments. Reasons cited included insufficient funds and resources for securing talent, a lack of internal understanding of AI technology, and a lack of recognition regarding the necessity of AI in new drug development.

The AI New Drug Research Institute of the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association conducted a sample survey targeting 55 stakeholders from 44 organizations including domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies, AI specialized companies, academia, and research institutes, centered around the AI New Drug Development Expert Committee. Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association

As for support needed from the government and relevant organizations, the most cited was fostering AI professionals, with 37 respondents. This was followed by the establishment of data sharing platforms (25), financial and investment support (23), providing opportunities for demonstration and validation (22), establishing regulatory guidelines (15), and global market entry support (9).

A total of 91.0% of respondents (50 people) stated that education on AI drug development is needed. Breaking this down, 17 (30.9%) cited AI algorithm and modeling programming, 16 (29.1%) cited data analysis and visualization, and 13 (23.6%) mentioned the utilization of bioinformatics and cheminformatics data.

Meanwhile, the AI Drug Research Institute has been operating the LAIDD professional education platform for AI drug development since 2021 in response to industry demand. Over the past five years, a total of 2,275 have completed the programs, and cumulative registered users have reached 13,823.

Noh Yeonhong, Chairman of Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association, said, "AI has now become not an option but an essential capability in drug development. Although domestic companies have a strong intention to adopt AI, they face the practical limitation of a shortage of professionals. If industry and government cooperate systematically to foster AI talent, build data infrastructure, and establish demonstration environments, our nation's competitiveness in AI-driven drug development will be able to make significant progress."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.