Developing new medicines usually takes many years and is often hindered by a very high rate of failure. According to Demis Hassabis, the Nobel Prize–winning scientist who leads Alphabet Inc.’s artificial intelligence division, AI could soon cut that timeline down to less than a year. Speaking in a recent interview, Hassabis said that within the next few years he expects drug discovery to move from a years-long process to one that could take only months, or potentially even faster.

 

Hassabis heads Google DeepMind as well as Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet’s dedicated drug discovery company. Since its founding in 2021, Isomorphic Labs has entered partnerships with pharmaceutical giants such as Eli Lilly & Co. and Novartis AG.

 

The pharmaceutical industry sees AI-driven research as a major opportunity to lower costs, accelerate the arrival of new treatments, and respond more effectively to global health challenges. Advances in computing have enabled AI systems to analyze vast amounts of molecular data, offering breakthroughs in how new medicines are developed. However, no AI-created drugs have yet successfully completed a clinical trial or reached patients.

 

Earlier this year, Hassabis said that his company expected to begin clinical testing of AI-designed medicines by the end of the year. While that has not yet happened, he explained that Isomorphic Labs has already produced early evidence of progress in moving drug candidates toward trials. “It’s still too early to give exact timelines,” he said, speaking from his London office in early September.

 

Isomorphic Labs was established to turn AlphaFold—DeepMind’s groundbreaking AI model that predicts how proteins behave—into commercial medical applications. Hassabis and fellow researcher John Jumper received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside a US professor, for their pioneering work on AlphaFold. The company is now building a more advanced version of the system, one that goes beyond protein interactions.

 

Hassabis has previously suggested that Isomorphic Labs could one day become a business worth more than $100 billion. Earlier in 2025, the firm secured $600 million in funding led by Thrive Capital. Its current research is aimed at developing treatments for cancer and immune-related disorders.

 

Rebecca Paul, who leads drug design at the company, said that focusing on these diseases offers a clearer path to translating AI models into effective medicines. She added that AI could eventually make it possible to manage many types of cancer as chronic, treatable conditions, though predicting an exact timeline remains challenging.