Artificial Intelligence holds great promise. There is a wide spectrum of where people feel this is going. So far, many focused upon the downside of AI. Much has been written about the ability to create a dystopian future.
Sadly, a lot of AI, up to this point, is used to accelerate killing, surveillance and the selling of products.
This could be changing as we enter the new decade.
One area that was long heralded as a possible beneficiary of AI is the world of drug discovery. Anyone who followed any Pharma company knows that its takes years to bring a new drug to market and costs billions of dollars. Reducing the time from start to market would be a game changer.
Artificial Intelligence might be at the point where it is ready to do that.
Insilico Medicine just announced their AI platform cut down the time for drug discovery. The design of the drug took 21 days. On top of that, the AI was able to synthesise and pre-clinically validate the drug in another 25 days.
This put the total at 46 days.
How much of an improvement is this? According to the paper, it is an increase of 15 times compared to the present method employed.
“Now, this technology is going mainstream and we are happy to see the models developed a few years ago producing molecules against simpler targets and being validated experimentally in animals. When integrated into comprehensive drug discovery pipelines, these models work for many target classes and we work with the leading biotechnology companies to push the limits of generative chemistry and generative biology even further,” said Dr Alex Zhavoronkov, the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, the lead author of the study.
Naturally, this is not turning drug development into an overnight process. There are still the varying layers of trials which a drug must go through. However, the ability to start applying this technology to each phase of the process could alter the time significantly.
Even if AI only helps on this end, shaving a couple years off the pre-trail phase is huge. The amount of money saved will certainly help filter through the system.
Healthcare costs are going through the roof and countries are looking for ways to address this. Medication is something that, with an aging population, is at the center of the medical debates. More efficient drug discovery could help to alleviate some of the financial pressures being seen.
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