Can AI speed up a cure for coronavirus? This Hong Kong start-up opens its resources to global drug firms for free

Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-based start-up, has partially opened up its database of drug compounds to global pharmaceutical companies, hoping to find a cure quickly for the deadly Covid-19 disease.

The five-year-old artificial intelligence software developer last week published on its website the molecular structure of several hundred chemical compounds, which are designed to work on a key “target” of the coronavirus. It is now seeking feedback from medicinal chemists, and aims to synthesise and test up to 100 of them with partners.

“In the short term, repurposing existing molecules [drugs] originally developed for other diseases such as HIV is the right strategy since their safety profile is already known,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, co-founder and CEO.

“But those might not be the most ideal since they are designed for something else,” he added. “Our approach is more long term, aiming for a dedicated molecule for that virus. When people learn to trust our algorithm, they will be willing to put resources on the molecules’ synthesis and tests.”

Since the highly infectious Covid-19 caught the world by surprise in January, anti-HIV, influenza drugs and even herbal Chinese medicines have been touted as potential cures. The number of infected coronavirus cases had reached more than 69,000 and claimed more than 1,660 lives, mostly in mainland China.