Some 20 pharmaceutical companies in Korea are in a quick move to jointly make use of artificial intelligence to develop new drugs.

According to industry sources, the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-pharma Manufacturers Association (KPBMA) launched their first task force to jointly purchase an AI platform.

The 18 local drug makers -- including Hanmi Pharmaceuticals_한미약품, Green Cross_녹십자, Dong A-ST_동아ST, Daewoong Pharmaceuticals_대웅제약, Chong Kun Dang_종근당 and Yuhan_유한양행 – discussed how to use AI in drug development in a meeting on Aug. 22.

During the meeting, they launched “AI-backed drug development’ task force under the KPBMA’s R&D policy committee, sources said.

“The task force will add two more pharmaceutical companies in the future,” said a KPBMA official.

AI computing systems, when combined with medical big data, can predict the drug’s efficacy and side effects, which can be used to guide and optimize clinical trial planning.

Such abilities can drastically shorten the time needed for new drug development.

Using AI in developing new drugs is something that global pharmaceuticals have already been doing.

Janssen has signed an exclusive license with BenevolentAI and will use AI technology to target selection efficiency, evaluate candidates for clinical trials, and target intractable disease.

Pfizer has begun developing new drugs for immunosuppressive drugs using IBM Watson for Drug Discovery, which is analyzing the company’s clinical data and using it to establish hypotheses for the new drug development.

KPBMA_{한국제약바이오협회} plans to narrow down the differences by joining forces with major domestic pharmaceutical companies and governmental support.

Meanwhile, the task force decided to hold a related seminar in the KPBMA meeting room of the association on Sep. 8, for a basic understanding of the utilization of AI for new drug development.

corea022@docdocdoc.co.kr

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