Poolbeg Pharma sees artificial intelligence breakthrough in RSV drug discovery

Firm has been working with OneThree Biotech to use AI to identify novel drug targets for RSV treatment

Poolbeg Pharma chief executive Jeremy Skillington: 'We greatly look forward to seeing the outputs of this programme later this year.' Photograph: Jason Clarke
Poolbeg Pharma chief executive Jeremy Skillington: 'We greatly look forward to seeing the outputs of this programme later this year.' Photograph: Jason Clarke

Open Orphan spin-out Poolbeg Pharma said it had made a breakthrough in using artificial intelligence to identify novel drug targets for the treatment of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

This is the first time that AI has been used to identify disease targets in RSV. The company partnered with OneThree Biotech, building a tailored AI model that has identified novel drug targets using Poolbeg’s RSV human challenge trial data.

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The pharmaceutical company, which focuses on the infectious diseases market and specialises in developing immature products to trial, will now proceed to the final stage of the programme. This will involve the identification of small molecule inhibitors to effectively treat RSV infections.

This will utilise OneThree’s proprietary Atlantis AI platform to identify the most effective drugs, reducing the timescale for the selection of drugs to a matter of weeks. Results of this stage are expected before year-end 2022.

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“Having identified these novel disease targets, we can now commence the final stage of the programme to identify effective drug candidates to treat RSV,” said Poolbeg Pharma chief executive Jeremy Skillington. “We greatly look forward to seeing the outputs of this programme later this year.”

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist