SK Chemical Derives New Drug Candidates Using Artificial Intelligence... Patent Filed Within One Year

Dr. Noah AI Platform 'Arc' Collaboration
Identification of 3 Novel Drug Candidates for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Accelerating Drug Development Through AI Technology

SK Chemicals researchers are reviewing the analysis results of a novel combination drug candidate discovered through collaboration with Dr. Noah.
[Photo by SK Chemicals]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] SK Chemicals has achieved the outcome of deriving new drug candidate substances within about a year of research through an artificial intelligence (AI) platform. This is a case where the time to discover new drug candidates was drastically reduced by utilizing AI technology.

SK Chemicals announced on the 27th that through joint research using Dr. Noah Biotech's AI platform technology, they have discovered candidate substances for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and filed patents. The newly derived drug candidates, obtained after the exploration and verification stages over 1 year and 2 months, include a total of three types: two for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and one for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

The background of this candidate discovery lies in Dr. Noah's AI platform technology called 'ARK.' ARK is a platform that integrates and analyzes literature information, genomic data, structural information, etc., to develop therapeutics, and it is particularly recognized for its competitiveness in the field of combination drugs. The two companies signed a joint research contract in November 2020 to discover new drug candidates and began candidate discovery using ARK.

Traditional new drug development has mainly been conducted through the development of combination drugs combining several existing drugs. For example, existing combination drugs can be seen as developed in a form that combines treatments for 'hypertension' and 'hyperlipidemia' to be prescribed to patients suffering from both conditions. By utilizing AI, this can be further advanced to a drug repositioning technique that combines already developed drugs to find new drugs with indications that were not previously approved, according to the company. The ARK platform includes 'Combinet' technology, which analyzes new optimal combinations showing superior synergistic effects compared to single drugs, and 'Combirisk' technology, which predicts side effects between two drugs, enabling rapid identification of optimized combinations.

Lee Soo-min, head of the Open Innovation Team at SK Chemicals, said, “Through AI technology, we were able to explore and learn the core disease networks that serve as the starting point for drug development and quickly discover treatments that demonstrate superior efficacy while minimizing side effects through a system specialized in combination drugs. Compared to traditional research methods, the time and effort required to derive candidate substances have been reduced by nearly half,” she explained.

SK Chemicals plans to proceed with patent registration procedures for the newly derived candidate substances and promptly complete laboratory-level evaluation and analysis to pursue various commercialization options such as clinical trials and technology transfer. They also plan to continue discovering additional new candidate substances through collaboration with AI companies. Kim Jung-hoon, head of the SK Chemicals R&D Center, stated, “We confirmed the potential of AI in the field of new drug development by deriving candidate substances in a short time with Dr. Noah. We will continue to expand the scope of new drug pipelines, including combination drugs, drug repositioning, and innovative new drugs, through specialized platforms of various companies such as Dr. Noah, Standigm, Simplex, and Deargen,” he said.

Meanwhile, since 2019, SK Chemicals has been promoting new drug development by partnering with big data researchers and AI specialized companies as part of its open innovation strategy. Last year, they filed patents through joint research with Standigm and are conducting multifaceted research with other partners such as Simplex and Deargen. Additionally, starting this year, to accelerate the open innovation strategy, the organization previously operated as a task force (TF) has been formally organized as the Open Innovation Team.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.