Dr. Rahul Gupta
Appearances
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
Certainly, Scott. One of the things that I found a little bit not up to par in my previous position was, hey, we're not focusing as much on drug discovery.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
We're not focusing as much because primarily having new medications while people are dying on the streets from things like not just opioids and cocaine, but also from things like PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as Parkinson's and dementia and diabetes. We don't have a lot of pipeline of drugs. So the question then became for me personally as a trained physician, why is that?
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
And what I saw was that the industry, it's very risky. Drug development is inherently a risky business with more than 90% failure rate in the initial preclinical phases. It's also costly. because it costs over a billion dollars to get a drug out there in the market. And lastly, I'll say it's very slow. It takes between 10 and 15 years to get a product out there.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
So my interest became, how can I help accelerate these processes into having Less risk, less cost, and rapid discovery. And that's what drove me to the market leader in this area, which is GATC Health, where I'm able to work towards a solution in a time where we can help people live longer at a lower cost and get those drugs in the pipeline faster through technology.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
Well, it's going to be 15 on a scale of 1 to 10. I'll tell you why. Because this is literally what I consider science fiction as a scientist come into real life.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
I mean, I'm dealing with an area, an arena at the right time where artificial intelligence and machine learning is helping us now have those drug targets identified early, the model for drug design developed through deep learning models, as well as getting these predictive analysis where we have predictions of greater than 80% success.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
So we don't have to put these molecules through years and years of funding, but also studies while people are dying on the street. So it gives me immense pleasure to see that I can help contribute to lowering the cost, increasing the speed at which these medications get out there, and to help people. So I'm absolutely excited about it.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
Thanks for having me, Scott. It's great to be on your program. I have just completed a stint in the federal government on the dealing with the opioid crisis. So this has been where You know, when I got in in 2021, the president said in the White House that, hey, here's a problem that's not been solved ever.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
Yeah, so for the person who's just listening here, think about this. We have the ability now today to really accelerate drug discovery by replicating a lot of the complex system biology that we have using neural networks and machine learning to so accurately and efficiently predict the efficacy, effectiveness of a drug, the safety, as well as the off-target effects.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
That means those effects that may be otherwise beneficial. So now what's happened is these models are putting a vast amount of biological data like genomics, proteomics, as well as clinical data. And machine learning is working to open new avenues for drug discovery. So these tools, as I mentioned, like deep learning and network analysis are helping us
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
pinpoint exact novel drug targets that have maybe potentially overlooked in the past, but they're also doing it with understanding this fewer side effects and increased potency as well as focus. So we're avoiding unnecessary less safer drugs and having fewer failures in clinical trials.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
Certainly, Scott. Look, I never imagined that I'd be here doing this in the world of technology and drug discovery and predictive modeling. But it all begins with, you know, in medical school, I was thinking about how to be a good doctor, how to take care of patients. And I indeed did a pretty good job at that. But I saw where there were needs and sort of holes in our system. So I went up
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
and got myself a master of public health degree, did public health and policy work for several years. Then I realized that I need to get a master of business administration, I did that. So it's almost like a lifelong learning, but not necessarily getting your CMEs only or what have you, but it's more of figuring out what's out there and needed and what's the call of the hour.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
So today, for example, there's so many other companies as well that are looking at artificial intelligence affecting life sciences. So it's always the approach of figuring out what's the need of the hour and making sure you are equipped with the tools to help support that need and with the ultimate goal of helping improve human lives.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
We've got a 31 percent increasing drug overdose deaths that were going over about 100,000 people dying, Americans across the country. And I need you to fix it. So just like in business, in government, you kind of have to go back and look at your plan and either revise it, fix it, or get out. So we started a plan, put together what we know now fast forward about four years.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
Talk a little bit about anything else you'd like to leave listeners with today. Well, thank you, Scott. And certainly what I'll say is this. We've had decades of this area of drug discovery and all of the aspects. And we've been used to a certain amount of high cost, slow movement.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
I think if there's one thing we will see in health care moving forward in the next five years or less, it would be a revolutionary change. through quantum computing, through artificial intelligence that will accelerate drug screening and hide through output screenings and get us more medication, life-saving medication in the market. I think we ought to be ready for embracing these technologies.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
And that's why I'm so thrilled to be at GATC Health, leading that charge for our nation and for the world.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
we're now seeing about 24% declines in those deaths. So 31% incline, 24% decline, that's a turnaround of 55%. Never has happened in the history of the United States. And we're saving a lot of lives. And it's a combination of getting more treatment out there, life-saving medications, as well as helping people survive, but also thrive in their lives while addressing the trafficking problem as well.