Drug Discovery and Development Archives - Page 9 of 158

Insilico Medicine’s latest AI-engineered drug ISM5411 could provide a novel approach for treating IBD

Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D.

Capping off a busy 2023, Insilico Medicine has announced a potentially first-in-class oral PHD inhibitor for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). ISM5411 is the fifth AI-backed drug candidate from Insilico Medicine to reach clinical stages.

ISM5411 targets prolyl hydroxylase domain (PHD) enzymes via modulation of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) pathway, which is involved in cellular response to low oxygen levels. By inhibiting PHD, ISM5411 aims to stabilize HIF, thereby enhancing the expression of genes that help protect the gut lining and reduce inflammation.

AI’s role in ISM5411’s development

To develop ISM5411, InSilico tapped its AI platform, Pharma.AI. This involved deploying Chemistry42, a generative AI engine, which created the structure-based small molecule based on the PHD target protein structure. “After obtaining a series of lead compound…

AWS-NVIDIA gen-AI alliance epitomizes Big Tech’s growing interest in drug discovery

Highlighting the complexity of proteins, this 3D structure shows rhodopsin, a protein crucial for vision. [Adobe Stock]

The allure of healthcare has long captivated Big Tech giants. Over the past fifteen years or so, several prominent companies in the sector have ventured into the life sciences sector with ambitious projects, only to often find themselves retreating.

The dynamic appears to be changing, particularly in drug discovery, thanks in part to burgeoning data science maturity, the runaway success of generative AI (gen-AI), growing appetite for the cloud across healthcare and continued computational breakthroughs.

Tech companies are also realizing the diversity and uniqueness of healthcare data. “In less than a decade, [healthcare] will become the largest data generation industry,” said Kimberly Powell, vice president and general manager of healthcare at NVIDIA. “That’s one reason why large t…

2024 forecast: Navigating new frontiers in pharma with AI, synthetic data, and strategic partnerships

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In late 2022, we published a series of predictions, which, among other things, projected that 2023 would be a “massive showcase” for machine learning (ML) in drug discovery and development. And in many ways, 2023 was a pivotal year for AI in pharma. This evolution in AI and ML applications in pharma built upon the groundwork laid in 2022, a year in which the pharma sector embraced digital components, dynamic clinical trial designs, and advanced data science initiatives related to radiomics. Now, the ongoing focus on ML for processing large volumes of molecular, biochemical, and genomic data continues to lay the groundwork for innovation in 2024.

The predictions for 2024 further emphasize the importance of data, in both structured and unstructured formats, while also touching on a range of other themes related to everything from pharma partnerships with virtual care providers to the challenges and s…

Genmab’s data-driven strategies speed up drug commercialization

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Genmab’s senior vice president, global head of data science and AI, Hisham Hamadeh, describes the company’s journey to becoming “a data-driven decision-making company.” In one sense, there is little choice but to do so. “We’re swimming in data like never before. We’ve seen the volumes of data, the ability to compute on that data, and the type of algorithms that are emerging,” he said.

The initiative has the firm support of the company’s CEO Jan G. J. van de Winkel, who expects AI to help enhance R&D efficiency in the coming years. Already, the company has succeeded in winning FDA approval for the antibody epcoritamab in lymphoma within five years after the first patient was dosed. The approval timeline was “a world record,” van de Winkel told Medwatch, adding that the company believes its investments in data science will unlock further breakthrou…

How Accenture and AWS are upgrading Merck’s IT and drug discovery R&D engine

[Pixel Matrix/Adobe Stock]

Historically, the pharma sector has exhibited a degree of caution in adopting emerging technologies such as cloud computing and AI, given the sector’s stringent regulatory requirements, data security concerns, and the complexities involved in integrating new systems into legacy processes.

The situation is beginning to shift considerably with the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, acting as a catalyst, compelling many Big Pharma companies to accelerate their digital initiatives. Pfizer, Sanofi, Novartis, AstraZeneca, and other Big Pharma companies have unveiled ambitious initiatives tapping cloud computing and AI technologies, aiming to streamline various aspects of drug discovery and development.

Inside the Accenture-AWS-Merck pharma alliance

For instance, Merck in 2021 forged an alliance with Accenture and AWS to update its IT infrastructure and facilitate advanced drug discover…

Eversana’s AWS alliance aims to cut red tape in pharma regulatory paperwork

In July, the life sciences services company Eversana revealed it was partnering with AWS to tap generative AI (gen AI) for pharma and other life science customers. It aimed to “pharmatize” gen AI, as the company put it then. Now, the company has revealed the first technology from that partnership – a regulatory review automation system using natural language processing and gen AI services on the AWS platform.

To arrive at its first area of focus, the company considered use cases that were “really practical,” offering “great opportunities for efficiency gains,” but without high risk to patients or healthcare professionals, said Scott Snyder, Eversana’s chief digital officer. The company used a version of the three R’s — responsibility, reliability and ROI. The first chiefly involves “making sure you really understand this is something you’re going to take ownership of, be accountable for, and do it in the right way,” Snyder said. Eversana …

Merck, Amgen back Culmination Bio’s quest to transform healthcare data analytics

In the same week that Merck and Amgen revealed expanded alliances with AWS, the bioinformatics startup Culmination Bio revealed that it has received $10 million in funding from the venture arms of those companies, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Amgen Ventures. Culmination Bio, a spinoff from Intermountain Health, has developed a vast data lake of de-identified patient records spanning over 40 years.

Dr. Lincoln Nadauld, CEO of the startup, notes that the funding is evidence that the data it has collected can address pharma’s longstanding quest to boost the efficiency of drug discovery and development. Frequently, pharma companies have “access to vast datasets, but those datasets are often not the right kind of data,” Nadauld said. “It’s fragmented, or it’s unstructured, or it’s deficient in some fashion.”

Culmination Bio readies data lake based on four decades of patient health records

Consequently, Culmination Bio is confident that t…

Psilocybin analog leads to 79% of remission in mid-stage depression trial

After only two doses, nearly eight out of ten participants in a phase 2 trial experienced remission from major depressive disorder (MDD) at six weeks, highlighting the potential of Cybin’s deuterated psilocybin analog, CYB003.

In 2021, an estimated 21.0 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode, representing 8.3% of all U.S. adults, according to NIH.

While estimates vary for remission rates with traditional antidepressants, one study found a remission rate of 37% after the first treatment and 31% after the second. Traditional antidepressants also have the disadvantage of being slow acting, often taking 6 to 8 weeks before a detectable effect is observable. Complicating matters further is that patient adherence to traditional antidepressant therapy often remains poor with one study showing that 50% or more of patients fail to take antidepressants as prescribed. Another review found that 28% of patients stop antidepressan…

50 of the best-funded biotechs of 2023

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As the year draws to a close, it is clear that molecular science and diagnostics is the hottest funding area in the biotech industry. In an analysis of 50 of the best-funded biotechs of 2023 focused on human health, molecular and science and diagnostics startups collectively attracting roughly $945 million, dwarfing the figures in other segments. The next popular two niches, gene therapies and oncology, had average funding levels of approximately $245 million and $170 million, respectively. While AI has received a significant amount of attention this year, biotechs specializing in that field garnered an average funding of only about $66 million. Outside of the life sciences, startups with a broader focus on AI raised a cumulative average of $202.47 million, based on an analysis of close to 1000 companies.

Caris Life Sciences has raised nearly $1.7B to date

In terms of best-funded companies overall,…

AWS expands collaborations with Amgen and Merck to advance AI in drug discovery and manufacturing

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At its annual re:Invent event, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced expanded alliances with two leading drug developers, Amgen and Merck, to create generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies aimed at accelerating drug discovery and increasing efficiencies in manufacturing processes.

Merck has been working with AWS and Accenture for several years whereas Amgen and AWS have collaborated for more than a decade.

Reflecting on AWS’s presence in the life sciences, Dan Sheeran, general manager of healthcare and life sciences at AWS, noted the company works with thousands of global healthcare and life sciences customers, including nine of the top 10 pharma companies.

“Healthcare and life sciences organizations are increasingly turning to AWS and technology as a business differentiator—especially with the explosion of generative AI,” Sheeran said. “Our pharma c…

NVIDIA and AWS collaborate to bring BioNeMo AI platform to the cloud

3D protein structure prediction with AlphaFold2, OpenFold, and ESMFold in NVIDIA’s BioNeMo. [NVIDIA]

Chipmaker NVIDIA and cloud behemoth AWS have been partnering for years, and now the two companies are announcing that NVIDIA’s drug discovery generative AI platform, BioNeMo, is now available on AWS. Additionally, plans are underway for BioNeMo to be offered on AWS on NVIDIA DGX Cloud.

The alliance was announced at the AWS re:Invent event. Startups including Evozyne, Etcembly and Alchemab are early AWS users using BioNeMo for generative AI-accelerated drug discovery and development.

Evozyne focuses on creating novel proteins for therapeutic development, Etcembly is building a large machine learning database for immunology and TCR immunotherapies, and Alchemab specializes in identifying protective antibodies for hard-to-treat diseases.

Last week, NVIDIA announced a collaboration with Genentech with BioNeMo also playing a ke…

Biotech boomtowns: Comparing salaries and cost of living in 9 global hotspots

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Boston is arguably the top biotech hub in the U.S., but the salaries in San Francisco and New York City tend to be higher. According to recent data, the San Francisco area offers the top average salaries for biotech jobs, followed closely by New York City. But the cost of living in all three cities remains stubbornly high, with New York City taking the cake for the highest overall cost of living in the U.S. San Francisco came in third while Boston was eighth.

Still, while the pandemic hit New York City and San Francisco especially hard, both cities remain competitive biotech hubs. According to Crunchbase data, both areas have especially high concentrations of biotech companies.

While other major cities with strong biotech sectors such as Boston, London, and Paris offer competitive salaries, none are in the vicinity of the average wages found in San Francisco and New York.

Sa…