Scientists are going to use a drug molecule invented by artificial intelligence (AI) on humans for the first time in the world. This AI Drug has been developed by British start-up Exscientia and Japanese pharmaceutical firm called Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. This medicine will be used to treat those people who are dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Usually, any drug takes at least 5 years to go through a trial but this AI medicine has taken just 12 months to get its first human trial. The chief executive of British start-up Prof. Andrew Hopkins has said that this development will be a key milestone in the field of drug discovery. We have seen the use of artificial intelligence for diagnosing diseases, analyzing patients’ data and scans, but this initiative is a direct use of AI in the development of new medicine.
Researchers have created this drug molecule known as ‘DSP-1181 using algorithms that go through potential compounds. Experts have checked them against a huge database of parameters. Prof. Hopkins has sad that it is a milestone decision to engineer an AI drug molecule where billions of decisions are observed. Algorithms are agnostic that is the reason they can be implemented to any disease. The first AI medicine is supposed to enter in the phase one trial in Japan. If it works out it will be tested for multiple global trials. Exscientia is developing potential drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cancer as well. The officials hope that another AI drug molecule will be up for the trial by the end of the year.
Mr. Hopkins has said that it is uncertain whether the medicines designed by AI are any better than the drugs created traditionally, however the AI drugs are essentially precision-engineered products. The use of artificial intelligence to develop medicine has been an area of interest for investors. As per the data, AI, machine learning, and deep learning have been the most funded fields of health technology. Sumitomo is not the only company, which has collaborated with Exscientia. Earlier, the British start-up has signed a lucrative deal with German giant Bayer as well.
