DIMSO is a drug designed by an artificial intelligence algorithm and is about to reach clinical trials for the first time. Known as DSP-1181, the drug was designed by AI systems (developed by biotechnology company Exscientia) and is intended for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Exscientia's CEO, Andrew Hopkins, said the trials were a “landmark moment in drug discovery” and that “the beauty of the algorithm is that they are agnostic and can therefore be applied to any disease”.
AI is slowly but surely permeating the field of medicine. Although machine learning has already been used in delivering diagnoses and analyzing patient data, the experimental application of AI in the field of drug discovery promises a multi-billion-dollar market.
Currently, it can take nearly a decade — if not longer — for a new drug to go from laboratory experiments to a doctor's prescription. AI-based drug discovery systems are designed to substantially reduce that timeframe.
Case in point: Exscientia's systems took just about one year to design DSP-1181, whereas a drug at this stage of development would normally take nearly four and a half years.
As pharmaceutical companies continue to witness this increase in speed and efficacy at the hands of machine learning, AI-driven drug discovery may quickly become the new norm.
Text by Peter Diamandis