The second, first AI developed drug enters the clinic; Aprea gets breakthrough status for myelodysplastic syndromes drug
→ Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and the UK-based AI startup Exscientia are claiming to have brought the first AI-designed drug into the clinic. The two companies say they developed the molecule in less than 12 months, as Exscientia’s AI rapidly generated and sifted through millions of potential compounds to identify ones that would fit Sumimoto’s target, a receptor in the brain associated with OCD.
The pair are not the first to make such a claim. Recursion Bio billed itself as the first AI company to enter human trials in July, although critics pointed out – and Recursion CEO Chris Gibson readily conceded — that one of the drugs originally came out of the lab of co-founder Dean Li, now head of translational research at Merck. Paul Workman, CEO of the UK’s Institute of Cancer Research appeared to allude to Gibson and this critique in a quote he provided to Exscientia’s press team to distribute to the media: “This is very different from the use of AI to repurpose drugs,” he said.
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