People watch a cell cultivation process at the Bio Korea fair in Seoul on April 17, 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Pharmaceutical and biotech companies in South Korea are teaming up to develop new drugs using artificial intelligence (AI).
During the drug development process, AI can predict whether a chemical compound is suitable for human use, thereby speeding up the identification of potential substances and enabling the selection of appropriate clinical patients based on hospital diagnosis records.
According to the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-pharma Manufacturers Association, there are currently over 100 cases where candidate substances of new drugs are being developed using AI, with more than 50 percent being carried out through collaborations between domestic and foreign companies.
Recently, HK inno.N Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with AinB to jointly develop a new drug.
They plan to identify a new antibody candidate substance for cell and gene therapies and establish an antigen design platform for vaccine development.
Pharos iBio also signed a deal with Yuhan Corp. last year to promote joint study and technology transfer of an AI-based KRAS inhibitor.
This company is now carrying out a phase 1 clinical trial in Korea and Australia after developing PHI-101, a candidate substance for the treatment of leukemia using its AI platform, Chemiverse.
Moreover, Oncocross, which has AI technology to identify the optimal disease for drugs, signed a joint study and development contract with Boryung Corp. in February to expand the indications of hypertension treatment.
“Currently, pipelines are concentrated in the stage of identifying effective substances,” an official at the association said.
“However, cases of drugs entering the pre-clinical and clinical stages are expected to increase over time.”
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
