back to article Can AI transformer models help design drugs and treat incurable diseases?

AI can study chemical molecules in ways scientists can't comprehend, automatically predicting complex protein structures and designing new drugs, despite having no real understanding of science. The power to design new drugs at scale is no longer limited to Big Pharma. Startups armed with the right algorithms, data, and …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Big Pharma

    One area where Big Pharma doesn't need convincing is using AI to generate biosimilar drugs to replace drugs in their portfolio that are about to lose their protection against generic formulations. They are also interested in starting research into AI generated drugs that they find potentially promising in order to stake an IP claim.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Big Pharma

      Writing that code, High on cocaine, Casey Jones you better, Compile it again,.

      Trouble ahead, Trouble behind, And you know that AI, Just failed again.

    2. Korev Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Big Pharma

      You do know that the word "biosimilar" actually means a biologic drug that's off patent and is considered similar enough to be equivalent?

      (I know this because my employer makes some of them)

  2. Economist1

    Alphafold delivers in drug discovery

    Nice to see Alphafold finally delivering something practical and beyond hype

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Standing on the shoulders of giants, Credit where it's due, etc.

    "AI can study chemical molecules in ways scientists can't comprehend, automatically predicting complex protein structures and designing new drugs, despite having no real understanding of science."

    This is not factually correct. One needs to realize that in-silico drug design has been a thing for decades. One just needs to research QSAR (Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship) to get an idea (e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7577280/).

    The idea is much older (late 19th century https://www.pharmatutor.org/articles/history-revolution-of-qsar-quantitative-structural-activity-relationship), but the raw computational power to throw at the problem and DFT (Density Functional Theory) have enabled a scale up of the approach only more recently.

    Another keyword is "combinatorial chemistry" (e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5645069/)

    In this context, AI is not nearly as magickal as it is made to be, since it relies on similar though patterns and data sets. It basically brings it up to 11 (which, granted, can be no small thing).

    Also, generally speaking the objective is not necessarily to find _a_ drug, but to reduce the number of candidates by orders of magnitudes in order to make experimentation viable and more meaningful.

    Also to note that this has nothing to do with big Pharma, since AFAIK it was mostly (if not all) developed at Universities, with big Pharma reaping the benefits and, as of now, the marketing.

  4. EricB123 Silver badge

    "Here the incentives become murkier; they'll have to convince Big Pharma to make their medication not just because it'll save lives but because it'll make money."

    In other words, only develop cancer and Alzheimer's drugs that can sell for at least $250,000.

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Boffin

      The alternative would be for all the risks to be assumed by governments of this planet. Could you imagine the headlines in the Daily Mail if a government invested a billion in a drug candidate that failed its last clinical trial?

      Disclosure: I work for a drug company so I have a job due to the current setup

  5. C-Clef

    Incurable?

    Can anyone or anything, including AI, cure an incurable disease?

    Surely by definition an incurable disease is, er, ... incurable.

    Possibly adding context e.g. currently incurable, might improve ... um ...

    Sorry, I'll get my coat.

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