Charlotte Walker-Osborn, a Partner and Head of Technology Sector (International) at global law-firm Eversheds Sutherland and a legal expert in technology law, explains some of the challenges and potential future of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of drug discovery.
Walker-Osborn explains that AI can be used for target identification, in silico drug design, drug development, big data analytics, prediction of study risks, patient matching and more. For these reasons, it is being trialled and/or deployed by many pharmaceutical companies with some developing their own advanced data analytics platforms which utilise AI. She says that the areas mentioned above may be obvious but “AI can even be used to summarise, in plain English, scientific papers and can help provide a starting point for companies’ own papers.” Although there still needs to be a human element within drug discovery, AI can be very useful in extracting the key aspects and points from data and finding patterns.
A recent example is the collaboration between Exscientia and Celgene, who united for drug discovery in oncology and autoimmunity. They have agreed to partner for three years in order to accelerate the discovery of small therapeutic drug candidates.
Exscientia is at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence-driven drug discovery and design. As at 8th January 2019, Frontier IP Group Plc (LON:FIPP) have a 3.3% holding in Exscientia. Frontier IP Group, through its subsidiaries, engages in assisting universities, research institutions, and companies in the commercialization and exploitation of their intellectual property (IP) in the United Kingdom.