Drug companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to help with drug development

Source：Updated：2017-08-02 08:34:05

In 2009, the first scientific robot "Adam" was born, and the research field ushered in the era of artificial intelligence. While the industry has been talking about artificial intelligence threats, the pharmaceutical industry has been making waves of artificial intelligence.
 
Recently, glaxosmithkline (GSK) has partnered with Exscientia. The deal involved an estimated $43 million, according to foreign media. Exscientia Scotland is a start-up company, the main business is the use of artificial intelligence for drug development guidance, cooperation, Exscientia will use its AI drug development platform for GSK 10 innovative small molecule drug targets for development of the disease.
 
The company's AI system, which is equivalent to a quarter of the time and cost of traditional methods, will be able to meet the new drug candidates, chief executive officer Hopkins told the media.
 
It is understood that Exscientia company drug development platform can use big data and machine learning methods at the same time, according to the existing data automatically designed millions of drug development is associated with specific targets of small molecule compounds, and according to the efficacy, selectivity, ADME screening for compounds and other conditions. The selected compounds are then synthesized and tested, and the data is then fed back to the AI system for improving the next round of compounds.
 
Pharmaceutical enterprise 2.0
 
As a company that will focus on the AI used in drug research and development, Exscientia well-known drug firms partners not only GSK, after Exscientia just to reach a cooperation agreement to jointly develop with sanofi double specific small molecule drugs to treat diabetes and its complications. In this partnership, sanofi paid $273 million. According to the introduction, the two sides have selected 45 metabolic disease targets, about 1,000 dual-target combinations, and the goal is to design a dual-target drug with molecular weight less than 500.
 
Drug development is slow, high failure rate has been the world drug research and development enterprise want to solve the problem, the artificial intelligence by big data and artificial intelligence, let data calculation simulation drug development process, reduce development costs, the effect of predictive medicine, clinical trials can greatly avoid costly failure's each big drug firms, artificial intelligence has become the improve the efficiency, save more cost of new drug research and development path. Pharmaceutical giants such as Merck, j&j and Pfizer are also in the pipeline using artificial intelligence to help with drug development.
 
In 2016, Johnson & Johnson co., LTD. (j&j) in the United States partnered with the British company, which is dedicated to the development and application of artificial intelligence technology, to develop new drugs. It is the most valuable artificial intelligence startup in Europe, and its core technology is an artificial intelligence System called JACS (Judgment Augmented Cognition System). JACS from academic papers, patent and clinical trial results of a large amount of information extracted to promote knowledge of drug development, put forward new can be verify the hypothesis, so as to accelerate drug development process.
 
Cooperation with MSD (MSD) of the company is located in the San Francisco Atomwise, core technology platform called AtomNet Atomwise - a deep convolution neural network (deep convolutional neural network), through independent analysis of a large number of drug targets and structural features of small molecule drugs AtomNet can learn small molecule drug interaction between target and rule, and according to the laws of the learned to predict biological activities of small molecule compounds, so as to accelerate the process of drug development. The main target is the efficacy and safety of the new drug.
 
In addition to artificial intelligence, Pfizer has brought the fire's VR technology to new research and development areas. Researchers at Pfizer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are exploring the possibility of using VR technology in drug development. It is understood that Pfizer applied in drug research and development of VR system on its 365 platform called virtual environment (CAVE), computer aided in a room, with a projector to build virtual reality scene around around the user. In addition, there are also head-mounted displays (HMDs) for personal use, such as Oculus Rift and HTV ive.
 
It has to be said that foreign big drug companies and artificial intelligence companies are leading the way in the application of new technologies. In 2015, the robot "eve" has been able to screen more than 10,000 compounds a day to help researchers screen new drugs for diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis.
 
But looking back at home, we find that there are not many domestic companies. Recently, the state council issued a new generation of ai development plan, which clearly defined the strategic objectives of China's new generation of artificial intelligence development. Among them, by 2030, artificial intelligence theory, technology and application have reached the world's leading level and become the world's leading artificial intelligence innovation center.
 
The hope is that artificial intelligence will revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry and even society as a whole. China's ai can also shine in new drug research and development, bringing new drugs that benefit patients.