Poolbeg announces 'breakthrough' in AI drug target programme

Infectious disease pharmaceutical developer Poolbeg Pharma announced a “significant breakthrough” in its artificial intelligence (AI) programme with partner OneThree Biotech on Tuesday, through the discovery of novel drug targets for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

The AIM-traded firm said that following the completion of the build and optimisation of a tailored AI model in June, the OneThree team identified novel drug targets using Poolbeg's RSV human challenge trial data.

It said the identification of the novel drug targets would now allow the final stage of the programme to start, which would involve the identification of small molecule inhibitors to effectively treat RSV infections.

The company said it was “particularly excited” as they included a range of targets for which there were known drugs with existing phase 1 safety and tolerability data.

Prioritisation of compounds with existing data would align with Poolbeg's capital-light model, as the compounds would have “extensive” non-clinical and clinical data allowing smooth transition to early human efficacy trials.

The board said the final stage of the research plan would use OneThree's proprietary ‘Atlantis AI’ platform to identify the drugs that were most likely to be efficacious against the identified disease targets, with clean safety profiles, in RSV patients.

Selection of drugs was historically a “long and extensive” process, Poolbeg said, but by using an existing AI model, it claimed the process could be completed in weeks, meaning results were expected before the end of the year.

“This is the first time that AI has been used to identify disease targets in RSV and I am delighted to have reached this significant milestone in the programme in such a short period of time,” said chief executive officer Jeremy Skillington.

“Having identified these novel disease targets, we can now commence the final stage of the programme to identify effective drug candidates to treat RSV.

“In keeping with our capital-light model, this AI-enabled in-silico research and development approach has significantly accelerated the discovery process by having the right partners and the right expertise to unleash the potential of our unique human challenge trial data.”

At 1238 GMT, shares in Poolbeg Pharma were up 8.32% at 7.04p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.