The Six Ds of Exponentials and drug discovery: A path toward reversing Eroom’s law

Abstract

Many technological sectors underwent recent exponential growth because of digital disruption, a phenomenon Peter Diamantis characterized as the ‘Six Ds of Exponentials’: digitization, deception, disruption, demonetization, dematerialization, and democratization. In contrast, drug discovery has been marked by rising costs and modest growth, if any, of annual drug approvals. We argue that the exponential growth of drug discovery can be also achieved through digital disruption brought by data expansion, mature artificial intelligence (AI), automation of experiments, public–private partnerships, and open science. We detected the emergence of all ‘Six Ds of Exponentials’ within modern drug discovery and discuss how each of the ‘Six Ds’ can further empower the field and forcefully address the societal demand for novel, potent, affordable, and accessible medicines.