An article in IEEE Spectrum journal for engineers identified five drug discovery companies that use Deep Learning models to help predict old and new drugs that might successfully treat the COVID-19 virus.
Drug development usually takes 10 years to move from idea to the market, with failure rates of over 90%. However, these international companies (Deargen, Insilico Medicine, SRI Biosciences, Iktos and Benevolent AI) believe that they can substantially accelerate the process, while also reducing the costs involved, using AI technologies. Progress made available so far include:
- Predictions that the HIV medication ‘atazanavir’ is the existing anti-viral most likely to help treat the virus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) – Deargen
- A published ‘AI-sprint’ overview showcasing 100 new molecules that also have the potential to bind SARS-CoV-2 protein – Insilico Medicine
- A newly developed system that can design, make and test new drug-like molecules in 1 to 2 weeks – SRI Bioscience and Iktos
Read more on IEEE’s website.
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