Deep Knowledge Analytics picked the ‘Top 100 AI Leaders in Drug Discovery and Advanced Healthcare’ out of an initial pool of 500 outstanding candidates. Unless a new AI winter wind blows and sweeps over the science explorers, their work is quite likely to enhance the quality of life surpassing the most vivid science fiction imagination. As Margaretta Colangelo, Managing Partner, Deep Knowledge Ventures, states ‘These 100 AI leaders are initiating data-driven transformation in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The overall success of AI transformation in healthcare depends on highly skilled interdisciplinary leaders who contribute to the advancement of AI in pharmaceutical and healthcare research and also have the ability to innovate, organize and guide others.’
The profile of these people is quite interesting as 43% of them come from Academia. It seems that some of the big brains of the planet have targeted their efforts on improving human life and possibly extending the lifespan. The impact of AI leaders in this category is characterized by a high number of peer-reviewed publications, a high level of citation, pioneering roles in theoretical or engineering of ML/AI for drug discovery, a notable theoretical breakthrough, a technical invention, or a widely adopted commercial model. The last factor, ‘a widely adopted commercial model’ may sound rather out of place or even incompatible with the scientific community. However, this is a reality we can’t get away and the sooner we get used to it the better.
Founders and top research executives in AI-driven drug discovery startups constitute the second largest group of leaders. Their companies are mainly established in the U.S., which according to the study proves the theory that the U.S. startup ecosystem works like a well-oiled machine.
Pharma companies represent only 15%, which can be attributed to several factors. At first sight, pharma companies seem that they did not respond quickly to new developments, so now they will need to run to catch up. Yet, a more penetrating look at the news reveals that a good number of companies have funded pharma tech startups and they still keep putting trust on them. Let alone the fact that pharma companies, after some acquisitions and mergers the previous years are much fewer if compared with the past, but they still control the lion’s share of the annual turnover. In this category, Europe gets on stage again with a bit more of 50% of the companies.
For now, the unpredictable factor lies on the big tech companies, even if only Google and Tencent are on the list, their projects are vivid examples of the huge power of this group of companies. Since it raised its first fund in 2009, Google has funded nearly 60 health-related enterprises, creating a very diverse portfolio. According to analysts, no other company in Silicon Valley is investing so heavily in healthcare related companies as GV, Alphabet’s venture arm. The 23Andme, one of the companies listed in ‘Top 100 AI leaders’, is one of the most renowned companies that GV has invested. Moreover, according to an EY’s report, between 2013 and 2017, Alphabet filed 186 patents related to the healthcare field. And the list of Google’s interest for healthcare sector continues with Verily Life Sciences that works mainly on its genetic data collecting initiative, Google Deepmind that can process tones of medical information within minutes and the exotic project Calico that looks for the secrets of longevity or maybe immortality. Tencent made its first grand appearance in AI healthcare in 2017, with Miying platform and in a recent international congress, Tencent unveiled Medical AI Lab that now focuses on the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
We consider the big tech companies can completely reshape the AI healthcare landscape because of the $ billions that they can spend for research and investments, plus because they own the largest part of the valuable infrastructure that many of the companies, included in the list, use for their operations. In this very new and exciting field of AI healthcare, we feel like starring in the movie ‘Fantastic Beasts and where to find them’. Everything looks extremely weird and thrilling, but in some cases, the ‘creatures’ are not friendly at all.
