Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with AI: A Conversation with Dr. Rahul Gupta of GATC Health 3-18-25
Tue, 18 Mar 2025
In this episode, Dr. Rahul Gupta, President of GATC Health, joins Scott Becker to discuss how AI and machine learning are transforming the speed, cost, and success rates of drug development.
Chapter 1: Who is Dr. Rahul Gupta and what has he accomplished?
This is Scott Becker with a special episode of the Becker's Healthcare and Becker Private Equity Podcast. We're thrilled today to be joined by one of the most interesting leaders in the country. We're joined today by Rahul Gupta. And Dr. Gupta is going to talk to us about the latest things that he's doing, his career, some advice for leaders, and a lot more.
Dr. Gupta, can you take a moment and tell us about your career and about what you're doing currently.
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.
Chapter 2: What challenges did Dr. Gupta face in addressing the opioid crisis?
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.
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.
I mean, that's amazing. And I had a chance to visit with you about that a couple of years ago in an amazing effort under your leadership, the administration and more. And I know you've made a recent transition. Talk about what you're doing currently.
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.
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?
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Chapter 3: How is GATC Health revolutionizing drug discovery?
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.
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.
And that's amazing. And give us on a 1 to 10, how excited are you about this new role after the really exciting role you had last time? Because that was an amazing role you had in the Biden administration. Talk about your excitement here.
Chapter 4: What role does AI play in drug development?
Chapter 5: Why is drug development considered risky and costly?
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.
And that's amazing. And give us on a 1 to 10, how excited are you about this new role after the really exciting role you had last time? Because that was an amazing role you had in the Biden administration. Talk about your excitement here.
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.
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.
Chapter 6: What excites Dr. Gupta about his new role?
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.
Chapter 7: How does Dr. Gupta envision the future of drug development?
world with the advent of artificial intelligence and hopefully being able to shorten clinical trials and experimenting. Give us some of the trends you're watching in sort of this critical drug development area and world.
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.
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
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.
I think one of the most interesting things I see about you is what a fascinating career you have had. Talk a little bit about what advice you give people pursuing interesting careers. You've had this magnificent career. You've also done an incredible job of developing long-term partnerships and relationships that have been very helpful for your career.
Talk a little bit about that relationship building and also just about advice on having a great and satisfying career.
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
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.
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.
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