If AI helps speed up drug development, can the FDA keep up?

AI is entering the medical space without a doctorate degree. In June, Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, announced a new tool for scientific research called Claude Science.

They say the tool can help scientists more quickly uncover and develop new drugs and support labs during their preclinical phase. It could mark a major leap for science, but not one without its drawbacks and limitations.

“One of the things that we want to think about is how do we make sure that we have a smarter regulatory system so that if we do have this great speed-up in drug development at the front end, that we don't have a bottleneck that's created by the testing and the FDA approval it needs to come later,” Wendy Netter Epstein, a professor of law at DePaul University, told Marketplace host Sabri Ben-Achour.

Netter Epstein recently joined Ben-Achour to discuss her recent article about the challenge of using AI in new drug development. Click the audio player above to hear their conversation.