Big Pharma Can Rival Big Software

Eli Lilly is now worth more than a trillion dollars, and roughly 300 drugs worldwide are projected to exceed $1B in annual peak sales each, a scale comparable to about 190 public software companies in the same revenue range. Developing a drug still costs close to $2B in present value and takes 13 years on average, with fewer than 5% of candidates reaching FDA approval. AI is expected to cut that cost by raising the probability of success and shortening time to approval across target identification, molecule design, trial recruitment and FDA submissions.