AI In Pharma Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Growth and Change

Major players in the artificial intelligence (AI) in pharma market are Novartis, IBM Watson, Microsoft Corporation, Merck, GNS Healthcare., Google, AstraZeneca, Atomwise, Inc., Exscientia, and Cyclica.

The global AI in pharma market is expected to grow from $0.91 billion in 2020 to $1.27 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39%. The growth is mainly due to the companies resuming their operations and adapting to the new normal while recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $5.94 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 47%.

The artificial intelligence (AI) in pharma market consists of sales of AI in the pharma and related services that use an automated algorithm to perform tasks that traditionally rely on human intelligence. It can be useful in handling data and presenting results that encourage better decision-making and save human efforts, cost, and time. The market consists of revenue generated by artificial intelligence (AI) companies, which are applying in the pharmaceutical industry. Only goods and services traded between entities or sold to end consumers are included.

The artificial intelligence (AI) in pharma market covered in the report is segmented by technology into context-aware processing, natural language processing, querying method, deep learning; by drug type into small molecule, large molecules; by application into diagnosis, clinical trial research, drug discovery, research and development, epidemic prediction.

North America was the largest region in the AI in pharma market in 2020. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.

Lack of skilled professionals may hamper the growth of artificial intelligence in the pharma market. In 2019, Indeed.com revealed that AI job postings increased 29.1% over the last year and yet, with no uncertainty due to the AI skills gap, searches for AI-related roles decreased by 14.5% over the same period. The shortage of AI skills is seen as a major barrier to the pace of technology’s adoption. In fact, 56% of senior AI professionals thought that a lack of additional, qualified AI workers was the single most important hurdle to be overcome in terms of obtaining the necessary level of AI implementation beyond business operations. Therefore, the lack of skilled professionals may hamper the growth of AI in the pharma market.

In November 2018, Cyclica, a Canadian biotechnology company that leverages AI and computational biophysics to decentralize drug discovery collaborated with Bayer on drug discovery programs. These companies will increase drug discovery applications by increasing intelligence into the polypharmacological outlines of small molecules while further developing Cyclica’s integrated system of licensing technologies. Bayer, a German multinational pharmaceutical company, includes human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, seeds, and biotechnology products.

The growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) for clinical trials research is driving its demand for AI in the pharmaceutical market. To bring a new drug to the market takes on an average 10–15 years approximately and half of this time is consumed during the clinical trial phases of the drug development cycle. Hence, using AI models and analytics tools can accelerate the clinical trial phases, perception of diseases, identify suitable cases and key investigators to inform site selection, and support novel clinical study designs. For instance, in January 2020, Pfizer, an American pharmaceutical company, tied up with a biotech startup Insilico Medicine to identify drug targets. With AI tools Pfizer can speed up drug discovery and reduce drug development costs in the drug development processes. Thus, increasing the adoption of AI for clinical trials research is driving AI in the pharma market.

Companies operating in the AI for the pharma market are introducing new AI tools that will be beneficial for the pharma companies and this is a key trend in AI in the pharma market. AI helps in quality control, predictive maintenance, waste reduction, design optimization and process automation. For instance, in September 2019, Novartis and Microsoft announced a multiyear alliance that will leverage data & Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform how medicines are discovered, developed and commercialized. Further, Novartis also established an AI Innovation Lab to empower associates to use AI across their business. Therefore, companies operating in the market are continuously focusing on introducing new technologies to survive in the AI in the pharma market.

The countries covered in the market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.