Reducing the drug discovery cycle from five years to two years! Alphabet-C DeepMind executive explains the goal of "AI drug research"

AI is revolutionizing the pharmaceutical industry by shortening the drug discovery cycle through technology.

Demis Hassabis, the head of Isomorphic Labs, an AI pharmaceutical company under Alphabet-C, stated in a media interview on January 10th that the company's goal is to shorten the drug discovery phase (i.e., identifying potential drugs before clinical trials) from an average of 5 years to 2 years. Hassabis is also the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind.

Isomorphic Labs recently announced a strategic partnership with global pharmaceutical giants Gilead and Novartis, focusing on the development of multi-target small molecule therapies. The total value of this collaboration is as high as $3 billion, which can effectively improve the financial situation of Isomorphic Labs, which has not yet turned a profit.

Isomorphic Labs uses an AI platform to predict biochemical structures and recommend potential compounds that are expected to have an impact on the human body, thereby helping to develop new drugs. Isomorphic Labs' AI platform is built on the scientific breakthrough achieved by DeepMind's AlphaFold technology, which can predict the structure of almost all existing proteins based on DNA sequences.

According to research from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, the discovery and development of a new drug, including clinical trials, often takes up to 10 years and costs an average of $2.7 billion.

Large pharmaceutical companies are facing dual pressures: they need to maintain new drug development while their existing drugs will face competition from cheaper generic drugs when their patents expire. As healthcare systems around the world put pressure on drug prices, pharmaceutical companies are also looking for ways to reduce research and development costs.

Hassabis said that many pharmaceutical companies are eager to collaborate with Isomorphic Labs, but the company wants to focus on collaborations that can improve the technology. He said, "If we wanted to, we could sign dozens of partnerships today, but that would lead to us being too scattered to provide more customized solutions for each project."