How an AI Startup Could Defeat Now Unbeatable Bugs

An aging population. Antibiotic-resistant infections. Afflictions by the hundreds that still lack a cure. The need for new medications is higher than ever, but so is the cost and time to bring them to market. Developing a new drug can cost billions and take as long as 14 years, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Yet with all that effort, only 8 percent of drugs make it to market, the FDA said. “We need to make smarter decisions about which potential medicines we develop and test,” said Abraham Heifets, co-founder of San Francisco-based startup Atomwise.