Drug discovery, being a complex process, takes years and ages to come to a commercial platform. Moreover, proving its efficacy along with the evidence of its safety seems to add more ages to this process. However, Artificial Intelligence or the AI keeping its prowess alive, has newly entered this sphere as well. Yes, not just the advent of AI in drug discovery and development add to make it more opportune in the field of healthcare; its recent results of slashing the time constraints had made it the new protagonist. Going back to the lengthy procedure a drug discovery follows, it takes up to 5 years approximately with a higher of 10 years believed in common. However, through leveraging AI, the Japanese pharmaceutical firm Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma along with the British start-up Exscientia has come forward to reduce the above-mentioned timeline to less than one year. Adding to this, the recently new AI-created drug is all set to enter a Phase I human clinical trial. This lessening of waiting time for the pharma companies will provide a major lift to the new entrants who otherwise find it way too difficult in introducing a new drug to the market.
As far as the motive is concerned, the drug named DSP-1181, a long-acting, potent serotonin 5-HT1A receptor agonist, is meant to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). If looked at the stats in Japan, nearly 1 million people suffer from this mental condition (OCD). However, the stats of the United States reveal that the disorder affects 3 million persons. Way back to a decade, AI being the harvest of technological advancement was seen with the association of the tech world itself. But, with time, its entrance into other industry verticals has made AI the catalyst of every commercial equation. And the advantage of this tech tool is not just grabbed by the marketers, but the ultimate end-users are equally harnessing the privilege as well. And in this case, where the drug is intended to treat OCD, AI’s tend toward mental health is altogether a new and commendable step taken by the pharmaceutical giants. “We believe that this entry of DSP-1181, created using AI, into clinical studies is a key milestone in drug discovery,” reported by Andrew Hopkins, CEO of Exscientia. “This project’s rapid success was through strong alignment of the integrated knowledge and experiences in chemistry and pharmacology on monoamine GPCR drug discovery at Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma with our AI technologies.”
