Human trials on the way for AI-designed drugs

Google’s next milestone? Cure all diseases. Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs — a London-based company reshaping drug research using AI — is gearing up to test its AI-designed drugs in humans, with trials set to launch “soon,” according to Isomorphic Labs President and Google DeepMind Chief Business Officer Colin Murdoch, as quoted by Fortune.

Isomorphic Labs was born out of Google’s DeepMind following its breakthrough, AlphaFold — an AI-powered system that accurately predicted protein structures. Over the years, the technology evolved to model how these proteins interact with drugs, opening the door for more efficient and precise drug design. The ultimate goal? A world-class drug design engine to accelerate pharma research and — eventually — find a cure for everything.

How soon is soon? While human trials for its AI-designed drugs have not yet begun, Isomorphic Labs is currently in the process of staffing up, according to Murdoch, who also noted that trials are finally in sight after years of the drugs — many of which are designed to treat cancer — being in development.

Is this actually feasible? It seems the London-based company might indeed be onto something. In January 2024, Isomorphic signed an agreement with two pharma giants — Novartis and Eli Lilly — at a combined value of USD 3 bn to accelerate its research. Earlier this year, the company raised USD 600 mn in an external funding round led by US venture capital firm Thrive Capital. The capital was then allocated towards both supporting existing drug research and pioneering proprietary drugs in oncology and immunology for future licensing.

High hopes, higher expectations. “We’re trying to do all these things: speed them up, reduce the cost, but also really improve the chance that we can be successful,” Murdoch tells Fortune. He hopes that through AI, the process of creating a drug — which often takes over a decade and USD 1-2 bn from start to finish — may be made significantly more efficient. Today, however, it remains unclear whether Isomorphic’s plans will come to fruition.