Bringing new therapies to patients typically takes more than a decade and on average costs $2.6B per new drug. Despite this investment, just 12% of clinical trials result in an approved treatment. While increased collaboration and investment across a range of disease fields promises to accelerate the pace and reduce costs, there are many barriers to overcome. 

Philanthropy is a critical tool for improving human health, but donors often lack the expertise and tools needed to navigate intentionally rigorous and often complex research and clinical ecosystems. SPARC advisors, in partnership with high-impact philanthropists, have been working across the scientific ecosystem to identify barriers to progress and pinpoint opportunities to strategically engage in the therapeutic development space.  

Science needs strategic funding, collaboration, interdisciplinary expertise, and an understanding of how new medicines and tools go from the basic research stage, all the way through to market. Competing priorities, aversion to risk, limited funding streams, and siloed fields make the kinds of breakthroughs needed to benefit human health extraordinarily difficult to achieve.

The Milken Institute Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration (SPARC) is driving field advancement that is changing scientific research and clinical care by bringing together perspectives, expertise, data, and tools to promote intentional support to create a stronger, more equitable system.  

Research labs and clinical settings are continually generating data, data that have until now been inaccessible and for many complex reasons, difficult to use. If gathered intentionally and deciphered using AI and machine learning tools, this data could further science’s understanding of a range of diseases, advance translational research, and enhance clinical care. The field is moving quickly, making big strides possible. There are, however, specific challenges that need to be overcome urgently before the promise of AI and machine learning tools can be realized to fully and equitably benefit human health.

Science and health funders are at a crossroads where thoughtful investments at the intersection of AI and health can be a catalyst to improve the health and well-being of the global community. Milken Institute SPARC has been bringing together funders and stakeholders from across disciplines to engage and build strong, thoughtful partnerships to grow the field in ways that lead to transformative science and health discoveries.