Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming drug development as major global tech companies enter the field, prompting South Korean pharmaceutical and biotech firms to follow suit.
According to industry sources, OpenAI has recently acquired the drug development management platform company, Orchestra Bio, accelerating its entry into the life sciences sector. Orchestra Bio has developed an AI platform that manages research schedules and progress during drug development, coordinating tasks between internal teams and external partners. OpenAI plans to integrate this technology and workforce with its life sciences research AI, Rosalind. This marks a significant expansion of AI's role from primarily identifying candidate compounds to managing development timelines and decision-making processes.
Industry experts believe that the entry of big tech into the life sciences market will drive growth in the AI drug development sector. As services expand from general research support to comprehensive management of the entire development process, the demand for AI adoption among pharmaceutical companies is expected to increase.
South Korean pharmaceutical companies are also integrating AI into their drug development processes. LG Chem is focusing on using AI to identify patients who are likely to respond well to treatments. On October 20, LG's AI Research Institute and U.S. biotech venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering held the 'LG AI Bio Conference,' unveiling a strategy to refine patient selection for clinical trials based on biomarkers. The goal is to develop personalized mRNA cancer vaccines that predict patient-specific neoantigens, with preclinical trials set for next year and clinical entry targeted for 2029.
SK Biopharm secured computational resources equivalent to 128 NVIDIA AI accelerators, known as B200, last month to facilitate translational research linking preclinical findings to clinical development. They are utilizing cloud subscription services from SK Telecom's data center. The plan involves integrating and analyzing disease, target, and compound data to enhance the accuracy of candidate evaluation and development decision-making.
Among AI biotech firms, Galax is gaining attention for its technology that designs proteins from scratch using AI. Galax is collaborating on research with global pharmaceutical companies such as Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca, as well as domestic firms like LG Chem, Celltrion, and Dong-A ST. In February, Galax raised 42 billion won in a Series B funding round, bringing its total investment to 68 billion won.
The government is also stepping in to support these initiatives. The Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio Association's K-MELLODDY project plans to establish a collaborative learning platform worth 34.8 billion won from 2024 to 2028. This platform will allow pharmaceutical companies to share AI algorithms without disclosing proprietary drug development data, aiming to create models that predict drug toxicity and metabolism.
Industry insiders believe that data will ultimately determine competitive advantage. While general AI can be accessed through big tech services, creating differentiated models requires accumulating disease-specific preclinical and clinical data. An industry representative stated, "It is crucial to demonstrate the actual numerical improvements in development timelines and clinical success rates resulting from AI adoption."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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