UK invests £82.6 million in AI-powered drug discovery

U.K – The United Kingdom has announced an £82.6 million ($102.2 million) investment to support artificial intelligence (AI) companies working on drug discovery and cancer diagnostics.

This move aims to speed up the development of treatments for serious diseases like cancer and dementia. The funding was revealed at the AI Action Summit in Paris, highlighting the UK’s commitment to using AI in healthcare.

As part of this initiative, the government is providing £37.9 million to three British research projects under the Research Ventures Catalyst (RVC) program.

This amount is further boosted by £44.7 million in co-investments, bringing the total funding to £82.6 million. Two of these projects focus on AI-driven solutions for treating and diagnosing cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

One of the main beneficiaries is PharosAI, a spinout from King’s College London, which will receive £43.6 million.

The company is building a platform that will allow AI researchers and businesses to access large datasets related to cancer.

This data will help train AI models to improve healthcare applications. PharosAI had already secured £100,000 in seed funding in April 2024 as part of the RVC program.

Another project receiving funding is Bind Research, the UK’s first not-for-profit research organization (FRO) focused on AI drug discovery.

The company will use £25.8 million to develop AI-based tools that analyze drug-protein interactions, including those previously considered “undruggable.”

By predicting how proteins interact with drugs, these tools aim to accelerate the drug discovery process.

Scientific co-founders Dr. Gabi Heller, Dr. Thomas Löhr, and Dr. Gogulan Karunanithy expressed their excitement, stating that the RVC program has allowed them to take a not-for-profit approach that was “largely uncharted territory in the UK.”

The AI Action Summit, where this funding was announced, took place in Paris on February 10-11. However, the UK and the US chose not to sign a global declaration supporting an “inclusive, sustainable, and ethical” approach to AI.

A spokesperson for the UK Prime Minister told The Guardian that the government would “only ever sign up to initiatives that are in UK national interests.” Meanwhile, 60 other countries, including France, India, and China, supported the declaration.

UK government’s AI strategy

The UK government has been actively promoting its AI strategy, particularly in healthcare. On February 10, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle introduced the AI Playbook, a guide to help public sector organizations safely and effectively use AI.

Additionally, the UK expanded its role in the European High-Performance Computing (EuroHPC) Joint Undertaking, committing £7.8 million to fund research collaborations between UK businesses and European AI initiatives.

Indispensable tool in healthcare

AI is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. According to GlobalData analytics, AI-related hiring in Europe’s pharmaceutical sector has been rising over the past five years, even as other healthcare-related jobs have remained stable.

A GlobalData survey also found that AI is considered the most disruptive technology in the healthcare industry.

The impact of AI in drug discovery is already being recognized worldwide. In 2024, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the UK-founded DeepMind team for their work on AlphaFold, an AI system that accurately predicts protein structures.

Despite this progress, challenges such as limited data, biological complexity, and regulatory concerns still need to be addressed.

Globally, AI applications in drug discovery are expanding rapidly. Isomorphic Labs, led by Demis Hassabis, is a key player in this field.

The company has been increasing its investment in AI research, focusing on using technology to speed up drug discovery.

Similarly, major pharmaceutical firms are investing in AI technologies to enhance their drug development pipelines.

For instance, collaborations between tech companies and pharmaceutical giants are becoming more prevalent, aiming to utilize AI to predict molecular behavior and human impact earlier in the drug development process. This approach has the potential to reduce costs and increase the efficiency of bringing new drugs to market

Even technology companies like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are getting involved. AMD recently partnered with Absci Corp., an AI-driven drug discovery startup, to combine high-performance computing with AI technology.

This collaboration aims to accelerate the development of new biologic drugs, showing how AI is becoming a crucial tool in the pharmaceutical industry.