Insilico Medicine leadership team shares insights on AI-powered healthcare innovation

InSilico MedicineJun 21 2024

Insilico Medicine ("Insilico"), a clinical-stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, announces that the co-CEOs of the company – Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, and Feng Ren, PhD – will be attending the 15th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as Summer Davos hosted by the World Economic Forum, in Dalian, China, from 25 to 27 June 2024.

Themed "Next Frontiers for Growth", 2024 Summer Davos gathers around 1,500 high-level leaders from business, government, civil society and international organizations, aiming for collective insights and deployable solutions spurring global economic recovery. By hosting events alike, the World Economic Forum (WEF) provides a global, impartial and not-for-profit platform for meaningful connection between stakeholders to establish trust, and build initiatives for cooperation and progress.

During the meeting, Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder and CEO of Insilico was invited to speak at the session "Can Appetite Control Lead to Healthier Humans?" on 10:00-10:30 a.m., June 27, 2024. According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, overweight and obesity impact 43% and 16% of adults, respectively, rising as a global health issue demanding immediate intervention, and novel drugs (especially those driven by AI) could be the new hope for a healthier future with stricter diets.

For example, in a paper published in May 2024 in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, researchers from Insilico and ETH Zurich revealed the broad therapeutic potential of TNIK, by linking it to not only fibrosis and cancer, but also obesity, Alzheimer's and aging. More importantly, Insilico's self-developed novel small-molecule TNIK inhibitor, also known as INS018_055, has completed patient enrollment for a Phase IIa clinical trial in China for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) patients, posing new opportunities for a healthier society powered by AI-driven drug discovery.

In 2016, Insilico first described the concept of using generative AI for the design of novel molecules in a peer-reviewed journal, which laid the foundation for the commercially available Pharma.AI platform spanning across biology, chemistry and clinical development. Powered by Pharma.AI, Insilico has nominated 18 preclinical candidates in its comprehensive portfolio of over 30 assets since 2021 and has received IND approval for 7 molecules.