The global push to use artificial intelligence to find new medicines faces a crucial test as one front-runner starts approaching late-stage trials for a drug discovered by algorithms.
Insilico Medicine — which has headquarters in Hong Kong and New York — used AI to develop an experimental drug for the incurable lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The treatment is in midstage trials in the U.S. and China with some results expected in early 2025.
The results of Insilico’s trials are being closely watched in the drug industry because the company used AI to identify a new approach to fight against the deadly disease and produce a novel molecule to treat it. U.K.-based researcher Deep Pharma Intelligence says that the Insilico therapy is the global industry’s first fully AI-based preclinical candidate.