The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has announced plans to launch a regulatory AI sandbox with the aim to explore how artificial intelligence can support medicines development and safety.
The sandbox, funded by the Regulatory Innovation Office, will enable AI tools to be tested that have the potential to predict how medicines will be absorbed, processed, or whether they may cause harm. The sandbox will also be used to inform the MHRA about the reliability of whether AI tools can support in deciding the safety of new medicines.
MHRA will use insights from the programme to evaluate the reliability of AI-enabled approaches, with this work expected to contribute to the development of a stronger evidence base and clearer guidance for the safe use of AI within medicines development.
Up to five AI-driven approaches will be tested during the first phase, with the agency to begin working with industry and academic partners from Summer 2026.
The initiative will also explore how clinical data can be used more effectively to improve understanding of medicine performance across different population groups.
Wider trend: AI
£2 million has been awarded to 20 international teams harnessing AI to develop new treatments for ALS using “the largest ALS patient data set of its kind”. The Longitude Prize on ALS is awarding £100,000 each to 20 winners of its international “Discovery Award”, including teams spanning 70 organisations. 100 teams reportedly responded to a global call to action in June 2025, with awards made on their potential to use AI in the identification and validation of drug targets to support disease understanding and future drug discovery. The 20 selected will now gain access to a comprehensive ALS dataset comprising multiple types of biological information such as genomic sequences of 9,000 ALS patients.
A new British-French partnership is set to tackle women’s health challenges and infectious diseases using emerging tech such as AI and supercomputers. As well as bringing together data from across the globe on a range of diseases such as E. coli, researchers from both nations will use novel imaging and AI technologies to study infections including TB, malaria, and emerging viruses, sharing research expertise, and working together on joint funding bids. £900,000 of UK government funding has been committed to furthering the partnership between the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing, which hosts the Isambard‑AI supercomputer, and France’s computing centre GENCI. £300,000 UK funding and €330,000 from the French government has also been agreed to support early-career researchers and new collaboration opportunities.
The Government of Canada has published its national AI strategy: “AI for All”. A $500 million initiative from the Business Development Bank of Canada will support Canadian SMEs in accessing financing for incorporating AI tools into their operations, and a further $500 million will be used to expand the Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative to accelerate adoption and commercialisation of AI across the country. A $500 million Canadian Tech Growth Fund will be established to tackle the “scale-up capital gap” facing promising AI companies, the government continues; whilst $700 million will be offered in affordable sovereign compute for Canadian SMEs. A new AI Missions programme is to advance high-impact projects delivering significant public good, with $200 million already committed to improving health outcomes for Canadians.
