Hong Kong-based biotechnology startup Insilico Medicine has tested INS018_055 in humans to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic disease that causes scarring in the lungs. This was reported by the TV channel. CNBC. The drug was created entirely using artificial intelligence technology.
The developer is the founder and head of Insilico Medicine, a former graduate student of Moscow State University. MV Lomonosov Alexander Zhavoronkov.
“This is the first fully AI-generated drug to reach human clinical trials, namely phase II patient trials,” Alexander Zhavoronkov told CNBC.
According to him, Insilico decided to focus on IPF because of the impact of this disease on the aging process. The company has two other drugs, created in part with the help of artificial intelligence, that are in the clinical phase of research. One of them is designed to treat the coronavirus, which is currently going through the first phase of its clinical trials. The second drug is for cancer treatment. Previously, it received permission from the Food and Drug Administration (the Food and Drug Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) to begin clinical trials.
The study of the drug was carried out in China for 12 weeks. Insilico plans to increase the number of test subjects to 60 people in China and the US. The results of the second phase of the study are expected in 2024. If the second phase of the experiment is successful, the group of participants will increase.
According to Zhavoronkov, the exact timing of future phases of trials is difficult to predict, as the disease is relatively rare and patients must meet certain criteria.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common form of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia that causes progressive pulmonary fibrosis. IPF affects men over 50 years of age twice as often as women of the same age, with a significant increase in incidence every ten years. The main factor associated with the disease is smoking (current or past). Some patients have a genetic predisposition: a heavy family history is recorded in 20% of cases.
Formerly Chinese scientists taught Artificial intelligence (AI) to design new processors in the RISC-V architecture.