The molecule known as DSP-1181 was created by the British startup Exscientia and the Japanese pharmaceutical firm known as Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. The drug is a serotonin receptor agonist and will be used to help treat patients who have been diagnosed with OCD(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).

Normally drug development takes 5 years to get to the trial stage, but the A.I. drug took one year to reach that stage. It was created by using algorithms that went through different compounds, and a large database to check them. The drug will enter it’s phase one trials starting in Japan, and if these trials are successful, will start being tested globally.

“There are billions of decisions needed to find the right molecules and it is a huge decision to precisely engineer a drug.”

Professor Andrew Hopkins, Chief Executive of Exscientia

“We are very excited with the results of the joint research that resulted in the development of candidate compounds in a very short time. Exscientia’s sophisticated A.I. drug discovery technologies combined with our company’s deep experience in monoamine GPCR discovery, allowed us to work synergistically, delivering highly successful outcome….”

Toru Kimura, Senior Executive Officer and Senior Executive Research Director

Researchers agree that this could be a key milestone in drug discovery and development, and they hope to make more progression in the near future.