SK Biopharmaceuticals introduces AI-based drug design platform

SK Biopharmaceuticals researchers are looking for a new compound. [Photo provided by SK Biopharmaceuticals]

SK Biopharmaceuticals, an affiliate of South Korea’s SK Group, Monday announced it has completed a project to develop an artificial intelligence-based drug design platform.

The pharmaceutical industry has turned eyes to AI technology to shorten time-to-market and raise the odds of success in a cumbersome drug development process.

SK Biopharmaceuticals said it succeeded in building the platform and begun applying it to drug discovery and development for the first time in Korea.

The platform is based on research data on central nervous system therapeutics the company has focused on for 20 years and has an AI algorithm optimized for drug development in cooperation with its sister company SK C&C.

The system consists of an AI model that predicts the characteristics of a therapeutic molecule and designs and suggests a new compound, and a compound data repository that allows researchers to collect related data from the outside and use it for additional research.

SK Biopharmaceuticals plans to use the platform for the entire drug development process, which including identification, design and research hypotheses of a target compound.

"The AI platform enables to design a compound beyond the ability of prediction and this system will accelerate the process of finding a promising novel drug candidate and dramatically shorten time and cost," a company spokesman said.

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