[Interview] "Just Click and Get Candidate Substance Results in 3 Weeks"

Vice President Byungho Lee, Head of Platform Business at Syntekabio

Lee Byung-ho, Vice President and Head of Platform Business at Syntekabio.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] "In Syntekabio's new drug development STB CLOUD, you can get candidate substance results three weeks after just clicking."

The pharmaceutical and bio industries are focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) new drug development. While it usually takes more than a year to discover effective substances, using AI allows examining multiple compounds in a short time, shortening development time and increasing success rates. Syntekabio is notable among AI new drug developers for utilizing 'cloud computing,' which they call 'C-AI.' Lee Byung-ho, Vice President of Platform Business at Syntekabio, said, "If existing developers only provided software, we provide both software and hardware to deliver results," adding, "We improved performance so consumers can access it conveniently." The advantage of Syntekabio's 'C-AI' service is that consumers can use it without purchasing hardware themselves.

To provide a cloud-based platform, Syntekabio built its own supercomputing environment. Currently, it owns about 3,300 units, and once its own supercomputing center, scheduled for completion next year, is finished, a supercomputing environment with 10,000 units will be established. Lee said, "Having 10,000 units changes the number of services that can be run simultaneously," explaining, "If the current effective substance discovery platform can handle about 20 cases, with 10,000 units, it can handle about five times that." He added, "We plan to continue expanding the supercomputing environment depending on future platform adoption." This is also where Syntekabio differentiates itself from competitors like Schr?dinger in the U.S. Schr?dinger, a leading U.S. AI new drug developer, offers software services requiring consumers to learn how to operate and separately prepare hardware. Lee said, "Schr?dinger's service is difficult to use unless you are a computer expert, but Syntekabio's can be used by non-experts."

Syntekabio developed AI platforms covering the entire new drug development cycle, from 'DeepMatcher' for discovering synthetic drug effective substances, 'NEO-ARS' for discovering neoantigens for cancer vaccine development, 'PGM-ARS' for discovering biomarkers to select clinical patient groups, to 'NGS-ARS' for analyzing genomic data of cancer and rare disease patients to enable precision medicine. Among these, the effective substance discovery platform DeepMatcher Hit and NGS-ARS were officially launched last month as 'STB CLOUD.' Lee explained, "Using DeepMatcher Hit, you can set the desired protein target and, with just a click, derive an average of about 100 effective substances within three weeks," adding, "Lower binding affinity is considered better for drugs; DeepMatcher Hit finds substances with binding affinities at the tens of micromolar (μM) level, while DeepMatcher Lead finds 'lead compounds' with nanomolar (nM) level binding affinities."

NGS in NGS-ARS stands for 'Next-Generation Sequencing.' Syntekabio uses AI to recommend the most suitable drugs for cancer and rare disease patients based on NGS. Lee introduced, "By comparing genomic information of healthy individuals and patients, when a specific mutant gene is present, the service provides the corresponding genomic information and appropriate drugs," adding, "Results come out within 30 minutes, and it is currently provided in connection with hospitals."

The rosy future of AI new drug development is not guaranteed. As of 2020, annual investment in AI new drug development reached $1.8355 billion (about 2.376 trillion KRW), but there are few cases verified in laboratories. No AI-discovered substances have yet passed clinical trials and received approval. Lee said, "Candidate substances found through AI are being experimentally verified, but since few cases have reached clinical trials or new drug approval, market trust has not increased much," adding, "I believe this issue will be resolved as cases accumulate over time."

Syntekabio has two candidate substances in its pipeline using its own platform: the synthetic drug immuno-oncology agent 'STB-C017' discovered through drug repositioning, and the COVID-19 treatment 'STB-R040.' STB-C017 showed complete remission (CR) in animal models when co-administered, with cancer cells completely disappearing. Regarding STB-R040, since COVID-19 treatments are already on the market and it is difficult to find patients for clinical trials, the company is considering whether to continue development. The company explained, "Because we have experience discovering drug repositioning candidates, we believe this laid the groundwork for quick responses to future infectious diseases."

Syntekabio plans to load NEO-ARS and DeepMatcher Lead onto the cloud next year, and PGM-ARS in 2024. Lee said, "Syntekabio's assets are the AI new drug development platform and internal new drug pipeline," adding, "Our goal is for the platform cloud to enter the market and secure sales, and after securing successful data from the internal pipeline, to create good opportunities for technology transfer."