The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Abstract

Background: Drug discovery and development affects human health and the drug market. However, investing in a new drug is often a complex and difficult challenge due to the long and complex drug research and development process. Methods: With the advancement of experimental technology and computer hardware, artificial intelligence has recently emerged as a tool for analyzing abundant and high-dimensional data. Explosive growth in the size of biological data provides advantages in applying artificial intelligence in all stages of pharmaceutical research and development. Findings: Similar to human learning models, machine learning and deep learning can gradually recognize different features of data, and update their model parameters through continuous iterations until a valid model is formed. Conclusion: This article begins with a brief overview of common AI models in drug discovery. Then, it briefly discusses their specific applications in different drug research and development phases, such as target discovery, drug discovery and design, preclinical research, and effects on the drug market. Finally, major limitations of artificial intelligence in pharmaceutical research and development are discussed. © 2025, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved.