Biotechs using AI to speed development of coronavirus drugs

The Wall Street Journal reports that artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a big role as biotechs race to develop treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.

There are currently no approved treatments for the respiratory infection. Antiviral drugs from Gilead Sciences’ (GILD +1.1%) and AbbVie (ABBV -1.6%) are currently being tested as is a vaccine from Moderna (MRNA -0.4%).

Taking a drug candidate from the discovery phase to a clinical trial usually takes more than a year, but the use of AI may enable a much shorter timeline. Insilico Medicine, Vir Biotechnology (VIR +2.1%) and Atomwise are among a group of firms leveraging AI to discover high-potential prospects. Vir believes that it may be able to test a candidate later this year, adding that it should be only “weeks or months” before it has the right antibodies.

Companies are also employing machine-learning algorithms to analyze large chemical datasets to predict how potential drugs will behave in the body, thereby culling the list of candidates to those with greater expected efficacy and safety.

Insilico is using two AI techniques, generative adversarial networks (GANs) to create protein-binding molecules and reinforcement learning in which an AI system learns to improve its predictions and conclusions to guide the molecules to specific objectives.

The availability of a new drug or vaccine for COVID-19 will still be about 18 months away at best. In the near term, Gilead and AbbVie’s medicines may be the most realistic options.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3549446-biotechs-using-ai-to-speed-development-of-coronavirus-drugs