Market Trends of Drug Discovery Informatics Industry
Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies Segment is Expected to Witness Growth Over the Forecast Period
Pharmaceutical companies heavily rely on this informatics software for pre-clinical research and development, target identification, compound screening, lead identification, and streamlining their drug discovery process. It is a major factor driving this segment's growth. Informatics analysis in drug discovery accelerates drug target identification and drug candidate screening and refinement, facilitates the characterization of side effects, and predicts drug resistance. Researchers and the pharmaceutical industry can use data mining software for drug discovery to gain access to all relevant and up-to-date data generated by the scientific community.
The pharmaceutical companies segment is expected to witness significant growth in the studied market owing to factors such as increased research and development activities by the key players utilizing technological support and a rise in investments and strategic activities by the companies for drug discovery. For instance, in January 2022, PostEra, a biotechnology company specializing in machine learning for pre-clinical drug discovery, expanded the company's existing strategic collaboration with Pfizer. The expanded multi-target research program established an AI Lab where PostEra and Pfizer jointly advance multiple drug discovery programs with an initial focus on oncology and COVID-19 antiviral therapeutics. The AI Lab leverages novel machine learning for medicinal chemistry built upon Pfizer's data and PostEra's pioneering innovations in generative chemistry and synthesis-aware design.
Pharma players adopt various strategies to bolster the use of drug discovery informatics in drug discovery, drug design, and drug development. For instance, in April 2022, Iktos, a company specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for new drug design, and Teijin Pharma Limited, the core company of the Teijin Group's healthcare business that provides comprehensive healthcare services to improve the quality of life, reported a strategic collaboration agreement in Artificial Intelligence for small molecules drug discovery. Similarly, in January 2022, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Fosun Pharma), a China-based healthcare group, and Insilico Medicine, a US-based artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery and development company, entered into a collaboration agreement to advance the discovery and development of drugs targeting different targets globally using AI technology.
Therefore, due to the increased strategic activities by pharmaceutical companies for drug discovery, the studied segment is expected to witness significant market growth over the forecast period.
North America Anticipated to Hold a Significant Market Share Over the Forecast Period
North America is expected to hold a significant market share due to the increasing research and development activities on drug discovery and technological advancements in data mining and analytics. It helped the growth of the drug discovery informatics market in the country. For instance, in August 2022, Sanofi partnered with Atomwise in a drug design deal worth potentially up to USD 1.2 billion. The contract, for which Sanofi paid USD 20 million upfront, focused on using the AtomNet platform to research small molecules for up to five drug targets selected by Sanofi.
Also, an increase in investments in research and development in the North American region is positively impacting the market growth. For instance, according to a report published in December 2022 by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), PhRMA members alone invested hundreds of billions of dollars over the years in research and development (R&D), including a record USD 102 billion in 2021. In addition, regional companies are concentrating their efforts on joint ventures, launches, and research collaborations, which will help the market grow in the coming years. For instance, in February 2022, Cyclica launched Perturba Therapeutics, a University of Toronto spin-out focusing on AI-enabled oncology drug design. Perturba is taking this challenge on by integrating Cyclica's comprehensive AI-augmented proteome-wide drug design technology with two first-in-class live cell-based assays from the Stagljar Lab. Thus, research collaboration for drug discovery creates significant demand for drug discovery informatics anticipated to boost the market.
Thus, owing to the increase in investments and strategic activities by the key players in drug discovery development with the support of informatics, the North American region is expected to witness significant market growth over the forecast period.
