'AI Renaissance: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostic Medicine' by Ty J Feeney and Michael S Sinha in The George Washington Journal of Law and Technology (forthcoming 2025) comments
tThe explosive growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the modern era has led to significant advancements in the world of medicine. In drug discovery, AI technology is used to classify proteins as drug targets or non-targets for specific diseases, more accurately interpret and describe pharmacology in a quantitative fashion, and predict protein structures based on only a protein sequence for input. AI methods are used in drug development to generate predictive models for drug screening purposes, refine and modify candidate structures of drugs to optimize compounds, and predict a drug’s physiochemical properties, bioactivity, and toxicity. In the medical diagnostics space, the advancement of AI technology in colonoscopy, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), acute stroke and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), vascular surgery, and ophthalmology may all offer increased efficacy as compared to traditional patient-care techniques.
As use of AI in pharmaceutical development processes and diagnostic medicine increases, the rapidly growing technology still has substantial barriers to overcome. The combination of AI with other novel technologies (e.g., nanotechnology) is anticipated to provide solutions to problems in drug development, model selection, drug screening, and even in clinical trials. Advancements in AI-enabled imaging analysis will be increasingly used in the fields of radiology and pathology, bringing with it increased efficiency as compared to traditional patient-care techniques. Challenges in data representation, data labeling, small sample sizes, data privacy, ethical concerns, and interpretation of models present barriers for AI developers and interested clinicians to overcome when further developing AI technology in the pharmaceutical and medical diagnostics industries.
As governments consider the implications of an AI-enabled world, it will be crucial for the United States government to develop comprehensive legislation and regulations for the increasingly widespread technology. As concern from American citizens, corporate leaders, and government officials became palpable, President Joseph R. Biden’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence stands out as a substantial starting point for anticipated legislation. Debate as to how AI should be regulated points to a logical conclusion: Congress must create a new entity within the federal government with the sole purpose of regulating AI technology, developers, and sellers. This newly created entity must consider appropriate regulatory schemes, the need for interaction between all interested agencies and industries, and proper enforcement techniques such as licensure, monitoring, and legal penalties.
