OpenAI has met with officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss using AI to speed up drug evaluations, according to a report by Wired. The discussions centered around a project called cderGPT, an AI tool designed for the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE), which regulates over-the-counter and prescription drugs in the U.S.
Associates from Elon Musk’s xAI were also reportedly part of the talks. OpenAI’s collaboration with the FDA aims to accelerate the drug development process, which often takes over a decade to complete. AI is seen as a potential tool to make some of the slower steps in drug development more efficient, particularly toward the end of the timeline.
The use of AI in drug development has been touted as a potential accelerant, but questions remain about how to control for the unreliability of AI models. The cderGPT project is part of a broader effort to leverage AI to streamline the notoriously slow drug evaluation process.
