GSK Invests $13 Million to Launch New AI Drug Discovery Hub in London-VCBeat

Author | Lu Chai

AI Drug Discovery Remains a Hot Topic. In this AI-driven drug discovery movement, there are two main forces: one is the emerging AI-focused drug discovery startups, and the other is large pharmaceutical companies. Previously, we“AI Drug R&D Trends at 33 Major Global Pharmaceutical Companies”An Inventory of AI Drug R&D Strategies at 33 Pharmaceutical Companies

Among numerous pharmaceutical companies, GSK has always been one of the most active players in applying artificial intelligence to drug discovery, and it has recently made new moves.

01、GSK Invests $13 Million to Establish New AI Research Hub in London

Recently, foreign media reported that GSK has invested $13 million to establish a new AI R&D hub in London, aiming to attract talent preparing to relocate to Silicon Valley.

London is home to Google DeepMind, the Francis Crick Institute, and The Alan Turing Institute. GSK stated that it aims to “tap into London’s vast tech talent pool” to attract candidates who might otherwise head to Silicon Valley.

“This is a vibrant ecosystem, with everything from high-quality pharmaceuticals to major technological capabilities. DeepMind is here, Google is here, the Crick Institute is nearby, and so are Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, and the Turing Institute,” said Hal Barron, President of R&D at GSK, during a fireside chat at London Tech Week. “Therefore, we are firmly convinced that both the talent pool and the ecosystem will enable us to establish a highly dynamic hub in London, where top-tier professionals, leading thinkers, and exceptional talents can engage with GSK, helping us develop advanced technologies and enhance our drug discovery and development efforts.”

GSK believes that artificial intelligence has the potential to significantly improve its drug discovery process. It claims that drugs validated through genetics are twice as likely to succeed, and GSK has a wealth of genetic data at its disposal. The new workspace located in Stanley House has already attracted 30 scientists, 10 of whom are part of the company’s AI researcher program.

In fact, many biotechnology companies are now turning to AI, believing that it can accelerate successful development by analyzing hundreds of genes at once or rapidly screening billions of molecules.

In a statement, GSK said: “GSK is committed to discovering better medicines and vaccines—not just better products, but doing so in better ways. Therefore, we are leveraging functional genomics, human genetics, as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning.”

In addition, GSK has AI researchers based in San Francisco and Boston, with the goal of reaching 100 AI-focused employees by mid-2021. “Our aim is to attract the world’s best and brightest talent to join us,” said Barron.

“In the field of artificial intelligence, we are looking for the best talent. Such individuals are rare. The competition is fierce, yet there aren’t many competitors,” Tony Wood, Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), told The Guardian in December.

It is reported that the new London R&D base can accommodate 60 to 80 employees. The most important task ahead is to fully staff the facility.

02、GSK's AI Drug R&D Strategy in Recent Years

As previously mentioned, GSK has consistently been one of the most active pharmaceutical companies in applying artificial intelligence to drug discovery. The company established an internal AI department at an early stage, which was initially named “Medicines Discovered Using Artificial Intelligence” and is now known as the “In silico Drug Discovery Unit.” As of July 2019, GSK’s AI team comprised approximately 50 members.

GSK has collaborated with startups including Exscientia and Insilico Medicine. In July 2017, GSK entered into a partnership with Exscientia to discover novel selective small molecules for up to 10 disease-related targets in undisclosed therapeutic areas. The collaboration with Insilico Medicine was announced in August 2017, aiming to identify novel biological targets and pathways.

GSK is also a member of the Accelerating Therapeutics for Opportunities in Medicine (ATOM) consortium, which aims to leverage artificial intelligence to advance from drug targets to patient-ready therapies in less than a year (an ambitious goal). GSK has provided ATOM with chemical and in vitro biological data on more than 2 million screened compounds.

In May 2018, GSK announced a collaboration with Cloud Pharmaceuticals to apply AI in the design of novel small-molecule drugs.

GSK has also partnered with Google to apply AI to drug development. In July 2018, a paper published in PLOS One described how researchers from the two companies developed a machine learning algorithm to identify protein crystals.

In January 2019, the Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Alliance announced GSK as a founding member.

In early April 2019, Exscientia announced that its collaboration with GSK had yielded the first tangible result: a “highly potent” lead molecule targeting a novel pathway for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In June 2019, the MELLODDY (Machine Learning Ledger Orchestration for Drug Discovery) project announced GSK as one of its members.

In July 2019, GSK also collaborated with researchers from the University of Strathclyde and the University of Nottingham, focusing on the application of AI in synthetic chemistry.