In the pharmaceutical industry, algorithms are being employed to find treatments and drugs for rare diseases that to date haven’t received much attention. The hard truth has always been that pharma devotes more research and development resources to diseases that affect the rich. The definition of rare has too often been associated with poor ― that is, even if a disease is quite prevalent in a population that cannot afford to pay for it (for example, people living in the developing world), the disease has been neglected compared to First World illnesses. By lowering the cost of data collection, mining, and analysis in drug development and clinical trials, AI can help offset imbalances in the pharmaceutical industry that direct attention to diseases that “pay,” whether because the disease is more common or because it is prevalent among demographics that can pay more. We see the democratizing power of AI to broaden the attention of the medical and research communities to find cures to traditionally neglected health issues and among traditionally neglected populations.
* offset: 상쇄하다 ** demographic: 인구 집단