While other companies need to conceptualise and create their potential treatments, then go through the rigorous testing and clinical trial phase of its development, before then applying for various market approvals, Algorae can utilise existing data from a myriad of drugs that have already made it to various stages of development and through approvals processes.

It means the AI system can screen for fixed-dose combination drug targets – either two registered drugs or a registered drug plus a cannabinoid. Repositioning combination drugs can potentially compress timelines, decrease costs and increase approval success rates.

Formerly known as Living Cell Technologies, the company applied to change its name back in July last year. Management says Algorae is a unique word over which it has lodged a pending trademark. It is derived from the term algorithm, which underpins the AI base central to its drug development system.

Management says a critical part of its armoury is the system’s access to the most powerful supercomputer in the Southern Hemisphere. Dubbed “Gadi” and operated by Australia’s pre-eminent high-performance data, storage and computing facility – National Computational Infrastructure – the supercomputer has previously been used for climate modelling and natural disaster prediction.

Data acquisition and customisation to build on the AlgoraeOS database is underway, with a focus on four key pillars of information including drug, cellular and biological data, in addition to chemistry. Initial acquired data already included in the company’s library covers scientific and medical fields including drug chemical structure, drug-target interactions, gene expression and drug perturbation.

The company entered into a memorandum of understanding with UNSW in September last year to build upon a sophisticated AI model trained for pharmaceutical prediction that had already been developed by data specialists within the university’s Data Science Hub. The project is led by Associate Professor Fatemeh Vafee, who attained a PhD in AI from the School of Computer Science at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Dr Vafee is the deputy director of the UNSW Data Science Hub and established the Biomedical AI Laboratory at the UNSW Faculty of Science.

The new development for Algorae also follows on from its engagement of La Trobe University to carry out preclinical studies over its “AI-116″ combination drug candidate aimed at treating dementia.

According to UNSW, the current pre-clinical stage of drug discovery can take up to six years, potentially costing billions of dollars.

But Algorae says AI tools are helping speed up the development process by repositioning drugs, identifying drug interactions, assessing toxicity and predicting novel drug targets. It adds that machine learning, deep learning and neural network models can also optimise compound designs, guiding researchers towards more promising avenues of investigation while saving significant time and resources.

The company appears to be the first ASX -listed pharmaceutical company to pursue a business model using AI for its research and development programs.

Currently, only about 6 per cent of clinical trials using traditional drug discovery methods receive FDA approval. Algorae aims to drastically improve on that by harnessing the power of data and AI.

And at a time when the world seems to be confronted by more devastating diseases and conditions than ever before, that would only be a good thing.

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