By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 23rd, 2024
Google Cloud’s AI-enabled ‘Target and Lead Identification’ and ‘Multiomics’ Suites are set to improve drug discovery and precision medicine.
Google Cloud has launched two AI-powered solutions to speed up drug discovery and advance precision medicine for relevant companies. On Tuesday, the tech giant’s cloud computing suite said its newly-launched AI-powered tools would immensely help biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
One of the tools, the Target and Lead Identification Suite, can assist companies in predicting and understanding protein structure. Meanwhile, the other Google AI solution, the Multiomics Suite, could help researchers collate, analyze, and share large amounts of genomic data.
The recently-launched Google Cloud AI drug-discovery tools mark the company’s latest exertion in the artificial intelligence race. With AI technology still emerging, tech companies have been grappling to gain the upper hand in a market that could be highly lucrative. Google has come under increasing pressure to flex its AI muscle since Microsoft-affiliated ChatGPT’s explosion onto the scene late last year.
New Google Cloud AI-Powered Suites Set to Aid Drug Discovery Processes by Saving Time & Money
The two new Google Cloud suites tackle a long-standing issue in the biopharma industry. As it stands, bringing a new medicine to the US market can be time-consuming and extremely costly. According to a recent Deloitte report, drug companies can invest as much as $2 billion to launch a single drug. However, these efforts only sometimes lead to successful outcomes. For instance, another Deloitte report stated that medicines undergoing clinical trials face a 16% approval chance in the US. Furthermore, this bleak success rate usually materializes alongside an extensive and tedious research process that typically exceeds 10 years.
Speaking on the ameliorative tendencies of the two Google suites, Google Cloud’s global director of life sciences strategy and solutions, Shweta Maniar, said:
“We’re helping organizations get medicines to the right people faster. I am personally very excited; this is something that myself and the team have been working on for a few years now.”
In a media session, Maniar added that the new offerings would save companies time and resources throughout the drug development process. Although both suites are immediately available to customers, Google said associated costs vary depending on the company. Notwithstanding, numerous businesses, including Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Cerevel Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CERE), and Colossal Biosciences, have started using the products.
Google Image Identification Solution
Google recently launched new tools for identifying and labeling fake and misleading AI-generated images. The new features are intended to stem the spread of misinformation by differentiating AI images from those captured by traditional means.
In an announcement leading to the image identification feature launch, Google said:
“We will ensure that every one of our AI-generated images has a markup in the original file to give you context if you come across it outside of our platforms. Creators and publishers can add similar markups, so you can see a label in images in Google Search, marking them as AI-generated.”
Pixel Fold
At its annual developers’ conference last week, Google unveiled its Pixel Fold smartphone. The tech giant had teased the device for weeks in the buildup and said it could start shipping next month.
The Pixel Fold starts at $1,799 and would likely compete with Samsung’s high-end phones.