Insilico Medicine, a biotech startup from Hong Kong, which raised more than $400 million, has come up with a drug to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a long-term lung disease. This AI-generated drug is the first of its kind to enter into human clinical trials, arriving at Phase II with patients. Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO and founder of Insilico Medicine, outlined that the research began in 2020.
This week, a drug fully generated by artificial intelligence entered clinical trials with human patients. Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-based biotech startup with more than $400 million in investment, created the drug, INS018_055, for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Almost 100,000 people in the U.S. suffer from the chronic disease, which can lead to death within two to five years if left untreated.
According to Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, this is the first AI drug to reach human clinical trials, specifically Phase II. The drug was designed in 2020 as a "moonshot" treatment for IPF, aiming to overcome challenges with existing therapies, which often come with undesirable side effects. Furthermore, the company is focusing on IPF as it relates to aging, but also has two other AI-generated drugs in clinical stage – one being a Covid-19 treatment and the other an FDA approved USP1 inhibitor for solid tumors.
Insilico is performing a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial for the IPF drug over 12 weeks, testing at 40 sites in China and the U.S. with 60 participants. If the Phase II study is successful, they will progress to a larger trial, then potentially Phase III trials with hundreds of people. Results from the current research should be available next year, although exact timing for future phases is tough to predict due to the rarity of the disease. Zhavoronkov is optimistic the drug will be available to patients who may benefit from it in a few years.
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