Insilico Medicine, a biotech startup based in Hong Kong and New York, has made a significant breakthrough in the field of drug discovery with the first-ever AI-generated and AI-discovered drug. The drug, called INS018_055, has now reached Phase II clinical trials and is showing promising results in the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare but aggressive lung disease.
The journey of INS018_055 is detailed in a paper published in Nature Biotechnology. It reveals how Insilico’s AI platform, Pharma.AI, was used to discover and design the drug candidate. The platform includes multiple AI models trained on millions of data samples for various tasks. One of the tools, PandaOmics, identifies and prioritizes disease targets, while another tool, the Chemistry42 engine, uses deep learning to design potential drug compounds that target the identified protein.
Insilico’s founder and CEO, Alex Zhavoronkov, believes that the progress of INS018_055 serves as proof-of-concept for Pharma.AI and sets a precedent for the potential of generative AI in accelerating drug discovery. He stated that traditional methods of drug development would have taken more than $400 million and up to six years, but with generative AI, they reached the first phase of clinical trials in just two and a half years and at a fraction of the cost.
The success of INS018_055 has attracted attention from investors and industry leaders. Sinovation Ventures, one of Insilico’s investors, described it as a breakthrough in efficiently discovering medicines from scratch using generative AI. Kai-Fu Lee, chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, believes that this achievement will revolutionize the field of drug discovery.
Zhavoronkov expressed his excitement about this groundbreaking achievement after a decade of work since Insilico’s founding. He stated that while he typically does not celebrate, he plans to watch Dune with a big bag of popcorn to acknowledge this exceptional milestone.
The impact of AI in drug discovery is not limited to Insilico Medicine. The AI Impact Tour, in partnership with Microsoft, will hold an exclusive event in Boston on March 27th. The event will feature discussions on best practices for data integrity in the future and will provide insights into the potential of AI in various industries.
Insilico’s groundbreaking research has opened up new possibilities in the field of drug discovery. With the use of generative AI, the time and cost associated with developing new drugs can be significantly reduced. This breakthrough has the potential to transform the pharmaceutical industry and bring life-saving treatments to patients faster than ever before.