Raven2: AI Platform for Novel Drug Discovery
Harnessing AI to find new COVID-19 drugs.
Project Overview
Updated March 31, 2023
The Problem
While the global spread of COVID-19 continues at a rapid pace, the discovery, testing and approval of new drugs to fight the virus takes much longer.
The first new vaccines for COVID-19 are now ready, but new drugs that treat the virus could take years. Yet, both vaccines and therapeutic drugs are needed.
How We Are Solving It
In response, a feasibility project called Raven: Rapid Repurposing of Drugs for COVID-19 began in April and concluded in July 2020. Led by Variational AI with the support of adMare BioInnovations and the Vancouver Prostate Centre (affiliated with the University of British Columbia), this follow-up Raven2 project builds on the progress of the initial study in April to discover new and novel COVID-19 drugs. The new project’s drug discovery platform is based on a completely updated version of the previous AI algorithm, but enhanced massively to discover drugs from the chemical space of all 1060 drug-like molecules and make accurate predictions on whether they could be effective drugs against COVID-19.
This extension of the original study is developing new drugs against COVID-19. The goal is to generate drug candidates that would be licensed to biopharma partners for further development and clinical trials.
Project Lead
Project Partners
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"The Raven2 project has generated valuable IP that will be commercialized into oral COVID-19 antiviral pills representing a true made-in-Canada therapeutic option for Canadians and the global community. Without the Supercluster’s support, this would never have happened."
Co-Founder & CEO, Variational AI