The design of the first small molecule drug with AI advances

Hong Kong biotech company Insilico Medicine, backed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Fosun, announced on Tuesday its advancement to phase 2 clinical trials of the first candidate for small molecule drug designed by artificial intelligence (AI) generative.

(See: Euclid telescope: will the hidden side of the universe be known?)

This drug, called INS018_055, has already been administered to the first patient, the company reported in a statement collected by the Chinese official newspaper Global Times. The medicine, designed to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic and irreversible lung disease, was more efficiently selected and designed using generative AI, speeding up the research and development process.

During phase 2 of the clinical trial, the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and preliminary efficacy of INS018_055 will be evaluated in patients with IPF, whom it is hoped that this drug can help in the treatment of this disease.

Xu Zuojun, chief physician of the department of respiratory medicine and intensive care at a Beijing hospital, and one of the scientists working on the discovery, told the Global Times. the importance of artificial intelligence pharmaceutical technology in drug development.

(Read more: This is the only place you can eat lab-grown meat)

According to Xu, this technology has the ability to cover all possible diseases and targets, selecting the most valuable and promising parts for research and development.

For his part, Dr. Ren Feng, Co-CEO and Head of Drug Discovery Department at Insilico Medicine, highlighted in various local media the potential of INS018_055 as a world-class small molecule inhibitor.

“This drug shows promise for fibrosis and inflammation treatments”affirmed, in addition to emphasizing that “it is the first drug designed by generative artificial intelligence to enter the clinical stage”.

The AI-powered drug market has vast potential, with an estimated size of $3.117 billion for AI-powered drug development by 2024, according to data from a study conducted by BCC Research.

However, some experts warn about the existence of a possible bubble in the AI ​​pharmaceutical industry, since the market value of some pharmaceutical companies in this sector in the United States has decreased significantly.

EFE