Insilico Medicine Is Developing New Inhalable Formulation of First Generative AI Drug

On the heels of the announcement of Phase II clinical trials for the first generative AI drug for the devastating lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), clinical-stage drug discovery biotech Insilico Medicine has announced another breakthrough – an inhalation solution for its anti-fibrotic small molecule inhibitor designed to give IPF patients in need another treatment option. The new formulation has been announced as a preclinical candidate, and the company is proceeding with IND filing. Insilico is now the first AI drug discovery company to venture into nebulized formulations.

“Here at Insilico, innovation never stops, and that means multidimensional validation of our AI platform capabilities, for various disease areas, indications and formulations,” said Feng Ren, Ph.D., Co-CEO and CSO of Insilico Medicine. “We hope to advance the inhalation formulation of ISM001-055 to clinic as soon as possible to address unmet clinical needs.”

IPF is a chronic progressive scarring disease of the lungs that affects approximately five million people worldwide and causes irreversible decline in lung function. The median survival is just three years and there are few therapies available. The primary existing therapies for IPF are pirfenidone and nintedanib, which may provide some relief or slow the progression of the disease but do not reverse the damage or stop the disease progression. They also have unpleasant side effects. Initial studies have indicated that Insilico’s potentially first-in-class small molecule inhibitor in Phase II trials, INS018_055, has the potential to address some of the limitations of current therapies.

With the new inhalable formulation, designed to be administered via a nebulizer, the company hopes to further expand treatment options for IPF patients. 

“With the support of Pharma.AI driven by generative artificial intelligence, we are making drug discovery more efficient and more accurate, as demonstrated by the three programs in the clinical stage,” says Insilico Medicine founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD. 

In addition to the lead IPF program in Phase II, Insilico has two other AI designed drugs at clinical stage – a cancer drug for oncology patients with BRCA mutations (including breast, ovarian, and prostate) and a drug for COVID-19 and related variants.