Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the pharmaceutical industry, with AI-designed drugs anticipated to commence clinical trials by 2026.
“AI applied to science is a lot richer than just the language models,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and the founder of Isomorphic Labs during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
“We’ll hopefully have some AI-designed drugs in the clinic by the end of the year. That’s the plan,” he added.
Notably, Isomorphic Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is scheduled to initiate trials for an AI-designed drug by the end of this year, targeting significant health concerns such as oncology, cardiovascular disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Additionally, Retro Biosciences, supported by OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, is undertaking efforts to secure $1 billion in funding to expand human lifespan by a decade.
The organization intends to launch clinical trials for three drugs this year, which include a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in Australia.
Retro Biosciences employs AI models to design proteins aimed at reversing cellular aging, with the objective of alleviating human suffering associated with diseases, including Alzheimer’s.
The incorporation of AI in the drug discovery process is poised to significantly accelerate the traditionally protracted drug development timeline.
According to a review published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, AI technologies, particularly deep learning paradigms, demonstrate considerable potential in drug design, owing to their exceptional capabilities in generalization and feature extraction.
The pharmaceutical sector confronts challenges characterized by high costs and low success rates, with over 90% of clinical trials failing.
AI holds the potential to address these issues by enhancing the drug discovery process in various respects, including the identification of drug targets and the design of novel, more effective pharmacological solutions.
As AI technologies continue to advance, their role in the development of innovative drugs is becoming increasingly vital, offering optimism for more efficient and effective treatments for a range of diseases.
