The news: Google DeepMind spinoff Isomorphic Labs expects to use AI-designed drugs in clinical trials this year, according to its CEO Demis Hassabis, who stated this during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The company’s platform is based on DeepMind’s AlphaFold AI tech, which models molecular structures—like DNA and RNA—and predicts how they interact with each other.
Zooming out: AI’s ability to quickly process vast amounts of data has the potential to accelerate drug development, which typically takes around a decade from the initial discovery stage through regulatory approval.
Efforts to use AI for drug discovery are still in their nascent phase and pharma companies’ involvement in the space has reflected a wait-and-see approach, given limited data on its impact.
Yes, but: Pharma companies are forging tie-ups with AI firms as their appetite for using the tech for drug discovery increases.
Just last year, Eli Lilly and Novartis entered strategic research collaboration agreements with Isomorphic. Lilly dished out $45 million upfront to discover small molecule therapies aimed at multiple disease targets, with the potential for up to $1.7 billion to go Isomorphic’s way if certain performance-based milestones are met.
In a similar arrangement, Novartis paid $37.5 million in cash upfront with the potential for Isomorphic to receive another $1.2 billion.
Our take: Pharma companies’ emerging investments in AI for drug discovery indicate they believe in AI’s long-term promise to fulfill their drug development aims and are financially committed to seeing them through. As we saw with Illumina and Nvidia’s recently announced partnership to use AI in support of analyzing genomic data for drug discovery, the tech’s presence in the space is only just starting to intensify.
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