A drug molecule created by artificial intelligence (AI) will be used in human trials for the first time, marking history for machine learning in medicine.
The AI drug was developed by British start-up Exscientia and Japanese pharmaceutical firm Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. It will be used for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
While drug development usually takes around five years to reach trial phase, the AI drug only took just 12 months to reach the stage. According to Exscienta chief executive officer (CEO) Professor Andrew Hopkins, it is a "key milestone in drug discovery".
Hopkins said: "We have seen AI for diagnosing patients and for analysing patient data and scans, but this is a direct use of AI in the creation of a new medicine."
Known as DSP-1181, the drug molecule was created by using algorithms that sifted through potential compounds, checking them against a huge database of parameters.
Hopkins pointed out: "There are billions of decisions needed to find the right molecules and it is a huge decision to precisely engineer a drug. But the beauty of the algorithm is that they are agnostic, so can be applied to any disease."
Phase one trials for the drug will be conducted in Japan and if successful, more global tests will follow. The company is already working on potential drugs for the treatment of cancer and cardiovascular disease. It hopes to have another molecule ready for clinical trials by the end of the year.
Prof. Hopkins claimed: "This year was the first to have an AI-designed drug but by the end of the decade all new drugs could potentially be created by AI."
Paul Workman, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, who was not involved in the research, applauded the development and said: Â "I think AI has huge potential to enhance and accelerate drug discovery."
"I'm excited to see what I believe is the first example of a new drug now entering human clinical trials, that was created by scientists using AI in a major way to guide and speed up discovery," Workman added.
