Daewoong Pharmaceutical Advances Cancer Drug Development Using AI Platform

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] Daewoong Pharmaceutical recently announced on the 13th that it has signed a joint research and development agreement for anticancer drug development using an artificial intelligence (AI)-based new drug development platform with the US company XtalPi.

Through this agreement, the two companies will form a new drug development partnership and jointly develop anticancer target drugs based on the principle of 'synthetic lethality.' XtalPi will use its proprietary new drug development cloud computing platform to discover new drug candidates for selected anticancer targets, and Daewoong Pharmaceutical will proceed with commercialization, including preclinical and clinical development. The results produced through joint research will be owned by Daewoong Pharmaceutical.

XtalPi is an AI-based new drug research and development company based on quantum physics. Founded in 2014 by quantum physics experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it has developed a digital drug discovery and development platform and provides services to more than 70 pharmaceutical companies worldwide. In the past year, it has completed fundraising exceeding $700 million (approximately 860.7 billion KRW) through Series C and D investments involving major companies such as Obimed, Google, Tencent, 5Y, HOPU, and SoftBank. It has also formed a strategic partnership with Pfizer and is developing an AI-based molecular modeling platform for use in new drug development.

XtalPi’s quantum mechanics-based AI drug discovery platform, which will be used in joint research with Daewoong Pharmaceutical, features the integration of machine learning to predict the pharmacological properties of a wide range of molecular compounds. This is expected to enable more efficient discovery of new drug candidates.

Seungho Jeon, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, said, "We have high expectations for joint research with XtalPi, which possesses not only AI technology but also expertise in pharmaceuticals and chemistry. We will accelerate the development of next-generation anticancer drugs through an AI-based new drug development platform that can overcome the limitations of the typical new drug development timeline and risks." Majin, CEO of XtalPi, also stated, "Using the AI platform, it is possible to find new and developable lead compounds for difficult targets more quickly. We expect to more effectively discover safe and effective new drug candidates for clinical trials through Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s excellent R&D capabilities and XtalPi’s AI-based platform technology."

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