JW Pharmaceutical is expanding artificial intelligence (AI) technology from new drug research to raw material research to increase research and development efficiency.
JW Pharmaceutical announced on the 30th that it has signed a business agreement with Merck Life Science (hereinafter referred to as Merck) in Germany at its headquarters in Seocho-dong, Seoul for the research and development of raw materials for new drugs by using AI.
Under the agreement, Merck will provide its AI software ‘Synthia’ to JW Pharmaceutical. Cynthia is a program that rapidly analyzes and provides the route of synthesis of drug substances in the new drug development stage. In addition, Merck’s custom synthesis research institute ‘CS Lab (Custom Synthesis Lab)’ will consult with JW Pharmaceutical on the new material synthesis knowledge.
JW Pharmaceutical’s raw material research center plans to use Cynthia for its own synthesis research of new drug candidates.
It is expected to reduce the time and cost of research for the method of manufacturing the compound (main ingredient) for use in non-clinical and clinical trials. In addition, based on the synthesis conditions suggested by Cynthia, the company plans to build an unmanned automated laboratory environment where robots synthesize raw materials 24 hours a day on behalf of researchers.
Lee Nam-gu, CEO of Merck Science & Labs Solution Business, said, “Cynthia can find solutions with more than 100,000 rules and sophisticated algorithms, which can be used for new drug development as well as patent application and thesis .” In strengthening the pipeline of new drugs using AI, we expect Merck’s state-of-the-art technology to contribute to open innovation in the industry.”
Shin Young-seop, CEO of JW Pharmaceutical, said, “JW Pharmaceutical is conducting various open innovation activities with bio-companies with innovative AI technology to strengthen the pipeline of new drugs discovered through its own R&D platform.” Research collaboration will be the cornerstone to making JW’s diverse new drug research efficient in the future.”
