Pharmaceutical leaders are pushing back against Silicon Valley claims that artificial intelligence could cure most diseases within a decade. Jeff Leiden of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Pascal Soriot of AstraZeneca say the main obstacle is not computing power but the profound, unpredictable complexity of human biology, which AI has yet to master.
As of late 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved any drug fully designed by AI. Pharma executives say AI can help researchers and accelerate drug discovery, but cannot replace human clinical trials. They describe those trials as lengthy and expensive, and as the ultimate bottleneck in bringing new drugs to patients.