For more than 90 years, UCB has been
dedicated to research and innovation. Our medicines have helped to
improve the lives of people around the world living with severe
diseases. Along the way, we have stayed at the cutting edge of science,
taking an open and collaborative approach to innovation.
In our
quest to address unmet patient needs, we embrace new partnerships – and
the latest technologies – to explore novel approaches to drug discovery.
That is why we have teamed up with Iktos, a company specialising in
artificial intelligence (AI), to accelerate the process of finding new
therapies.
Drug discovery can be a complex and challenging
process. While the success stories are well known – they are delivering
value to patients every day – there are many candidate medicines that do
not make it through the long, challenging and expensive journey from
bench to bedside.
It takes 10-15 years from early-stage
discovery to marketing authorisation. For many patients, this is time
they do not have. And, of course, all of this is costly.
AI has
the potential to accelerate this process and make it significantly more
efficient. UCB and Iktos will use state-of-the-art compound design
technology to speed up drug discovery in neurology and immunology. As
part of an exciting new partnership, our medicinal chemists and computer
aided drug design (CADD) scientists will be working with Iktos experts
on small molecule drug discovery projects.
Computer models will
help to make drug design faster and more efficient by identifying
compounds with a higher chance of ultimately becoming effective
therapies. The potential of AI to reinvent drug design may have sounded
like science fiction a decade ago, but it is fast becoming a vital
catalyst for real-world research on much-needed new treatments.
We
are very excited about working with Iktos to apply the power of this
technology to UCB small molecule discovery projects to bring patient
value faster.
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