IBM is stopping development and sales of its tool that utilizes Watson AI to help pharmaceutical companies find new drugs, according to a STAT report. A source told STAT that the product, Watson for Drug Discovery, wasn’t yielding large enough financial returns.
The source noted that some IBM employees were recently informed of the decision, and it prompted a process to reevaluate IBM’s work in the pharma industry and look at other opportunities.
IBM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, IBM spokesman Edward Barbini told STAT that the company will continue serving customers already using the tool to analyze data for R&D.
“We are focusing our resources within Watson Health to double down on the adjacent field of clinical development where we see an even greater market need for our data and AI capabilities,” Barbini told STAT.
In 2016, IBM launched a partnership with Pfizer, which was using Watson for Drug Discovery to accelerate research in immuno-oncology. A Pfizer spokeswoman told STAT that her company is still using Watson for research and discovery programs for hypotheses generation.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
IBM Watson has faced other challenges as of late.
A 2017 STAT investigation detailed how the supercomputer isn’t living up to the expectations IBM set up for it.
Additionally, in a 2017 interview with MedCity, a former IBM employee who worked in the company’s life sciences group explained that even though marketing budgets were large, the talk never materialized into a tangible off-the-shelf product. In the article, the employee said he has heard dissatisfaction from his former colleagues. “There’s a lot of frustration there. A lot of infighting and a lot of power jockeying and a lot of politics going on,” he said. “So people are getting fed up and leaving left and right.”
Last summer, IBM verified a round of layoffs impacted its Watson Health unit.
And in 2018, Deborah DiSanzo left her role as IBM Watson Health general manager.
Photo: grThirteen, Getty Images
