Layla Hosseini-Gerami discusses how AI is impacting the pharma R&D funnel, and if this spells the end of the R&D lottery.
"The traditional R&D process is a high-stakes, 20-year lottery. We continually pour money into the top of the funnel, knowing that if a promising candidate fails in Phase I due to toxicity, the entire multi-million-pound investment is simply written off. This "write-off" mentality is the root of the problem. It treats failure as a total loss, ensuring that critical data is buried and the financial risk is unmanaged until it becomes irreversible. For ambitious SMEs and the venture capitalists who back them, this extreme volatility is the greatest impediment to sustainable growth and innovation. The industry desperately needs to move from a gambling model to a precision engineering model."
Read more:
How can AI reshape the pharma R&D funnel? can be read in full at in One Nucleus Highlights -Autumn/Winter 2025.
Published: 4 November 2025 by One Nucleus.
