AI-driven drug discovery model sets new accuracy prediction benchmark

Iambic Therapeutics, an Nvidia-backed biotech based in London, have stated that their AI drug discovery model named ‘Enchant’ demonstrates the potential to reduce the time and cost associated with new drug development. 

With training from large sets of preclinical data derived from laboratory tests, Enchant has been designed to predict how a given active molecule will perform in early development. A Whitepaper published by Iambic stated that Enchant demonstrated high accuracy in predictions concerning the absorption of new drugs in the human body when cross-referenced with real-world trials and outcomes; earlier models have previously achieved an accuracy prediction score of 0.58, while Enchant has demonstrated a 0.74 accuracy prediction score. This achievement comes as part of Iambic’s investment in developing new pharmaceuticals, and could potentially accelerate the new drug development pipeline at the earliest stage of development. 

Co-Founder and CTO of Iambic Fred Manby commented to Reuters, “The cost of getting a product to market is often quoted at around USD$2 billion, and a lot of that isn’t about the programme costs but the failure rates. The costs of getting a product all the way to a marketed medicine derive from a high chance of late-stage failure. If you make a 10% improvement in each stage of clinical development, you would basically halve the cost because it applies cumulatively.” 

Previous AI-driven programmes have also sought to advance the use of AI in drug discovery. For example, The Google DeepMind AlphaFold program that recently won the Nobel Prize in chemistry looked at predicting 3D strucutres of molecules binding with protein targets. However, 2018 Nobel Laureate and Iambic board member Frances Arnold says that is not enough. “The success of a drug candidate is determined by its pharmacokinetic, efficacy, and toxicity properties. Enchant addresses these distinct and important challenges,” he stated. 

Source: 

Nvidia-backed AI firm Iambic unveils drug discovery ‘breakthrough’ [Accessed November 11, 2024] https://www.reuters.com./technology/artificial-intelligence/nvidia-backed-ai-firm-iambic-unveils-drug-discovery-breakthrough-2024-10-29/