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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Artif. Intell.

Sec. Medicine and Public Health

Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frai.2025.1636809

This article is part of the Research TopicGenAI in Healthcare: Technologies, Applications and EvaluationView all 5 articles

From Data Silos to Insights: The PRINCE Multi-Agent Knowledge Engine for Preclinical Drug Development

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Bayer AG, Berlin, Germany
  • 2Thoughtworks Technologies (India) Private Ltd., Pune, India
  • 3Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The pharmaceutical industry faces pressure to improve the drug development process while reducing costs in an evolving regulatory landscape. This paper presents the Preclinical Information Center (PRINCE), a cloud-hosted data integration platform developed by Bayer AG in collaboration with Thoughtworks. PRINCE integrates decades of structured and unstructured safety study reports, leveraging a multi-agent architecture based on Large Language Models (LLMs) and advanced data retrieval methodologies, such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation and Text-to-SQL. In this paper, we describe the three-step evolution of PRINCE from a data search tool based on keyword matching to a resourceful research assistant capable of answering complex questions and drafting regulatory-critical documents. We highlight the iterative development process, guided by user feedback, that ensures alignment with evolving research needs and maximizes utility. Finally, we discuss the importance of building trust-based solutions and how transparency and explainability have been integrated into PRINCE. In particular, the integration of a human-in-the-loop approach enhances the accuracy and retains human accountability. We believe that the development and deployment of the PRINCE chatbot demonstrate the transformative potential of AI in the pharmaceutical industry, significantly improving data accessibility and research efficiency, while prioritizing data governance and compliance.

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry1, preclinical2, LLM3, chatbot4, Multi-Agent5, RAG6, Generative AI7, Regulatory Documentation8

Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 30 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Henrique Vieira E Vieira, Kulkarni, Zalewski, Löffler, Münch and Kreuchwig. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Annika Kreuchwig, Bayer AG, Berlin, Germany

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.