Artificial intelligence is revolutionising the global pharmaceutical industry, yet Australia risks being left behind, writes Fatemeh Vafaee deputy director of UNSW AI Institute.

The traditional drug discovery process is slow and expensive — taking an average of 12 years and $2.6 billion to bring a single new drug to market.

AI is set to radically change these figures, but Australia’s adoption of AI in drug discovery is slow.

While Australia is home to world-class talent in biomedical sciences, there is a relative absence of large-scale pharmaceutical research and development headquarters.

Read Vafaee’s full Ideas piece