Developing a drug takes years, and most candidates never reach patients. Amortizing the cost of failed drugs across stages, the present value cost of developing a drug is close to $2B. The process takes 13 years on average, with rising clinical trial costs putting further pressure on R&D productivity. AI could improve those economics by increasing the probability of success and reducing development time, from identifying promising molecules to designing clinical trials and improving patient recruitment. That may enable companies to pursue therapeutic targets and indications that might otherwise have been uneconomical. Full piece on why AI will make pharma even bigger: http://a16z.news/p/big-pharma-can-rival-big-software