AI-based new drug development specialist InsilicoX Co., Ltd. (CEO Jung Dae-sik) announced that it has been selected as a participating institution in the “K-AI New Drug Development Preclinical and Clinical Model Development Project (R&D)” promoted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The project is a large-scale national research and development (R&D) initiative with a total budget of KRW 37.1 billion to be carried out over four years and three months, from October 2025 to December 2029. It aims to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of new drug development by linking and interpreting preclinical and clinical stage data using AI-based methods.

The K-AI project is overseen (Lead 1) by the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association, with Seoul National University Hospital (Lead 2), Samsung Medical Center (Lead 3), and the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (Lead 4) participating as lead institutions. As a participating company under Lead 4, InsilicoX is responsible for “developing AI models to replace animal testing.”

In this project, InsilicoX plans to build an AI-based integrated clinical–nonclinical model capable of predicting and validating the efficacy of new drug candidates through integrated analysis of clinical and nonclinical data using AI and big data technologies. The core of the project is to establish an AI-based, full-cycle new drug development platform that connects the preclinical and clinical stages. InsilicoX intends to focus on developing models that secure a level of predictive accuracy and reproducibility sufficient to substitute for animal testing by leveraging AI.

As three of the five major tertiary general hospitals (BIG5) in Korea are jointly participating in this research, InsilicoX has secured a research foundation to verify the clinical validity and predictive reliability of its AI new drug development models based on high-quality clinical data accumulated in real clinical settings. Through this, the company plans to conduct R&D aimed at demonstrating the practical feasibility and clinical applicability of AI models that replace animal testing and realizing an efficient next-generation new drug development process.

Through participation in the K-AI project, InsilicoX is expanding the AI-based preclinical predictive modeling technologies it has secured into various new drug development domains. As part of this expansion, the company has recently been conducting AI-based candidate analysis and prediction collaboration with microbiome healthcare company HEM Pharma, thereby broadening the industrial proof-of-concept potential of its technologies.

This collaboration serves as an industry partnership case that demonstrates the application potential of the AI preclinical predictive models under development in the K-AI project. Through this, InsilicoX plans to expand the scope of application of its AI new drug development platform and, by collaborating with various pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the future, to broaden the new drug development ecosystem based on AI technologies.

CEO Jung Dae-sik of InsilicoX stated, “This project participation is highly meaningful in that InsilicoX’s AI technology has entered a new stage encompassing both the replacement of animal testing and clinical prediction. By reducing the cost and time of new drug development through AI, the company intends to enhance efficiency, and, based on the technologies secured, expand collaboration into various new drug development fields such as microbiomes, while strengthening technological completeness and research competitiveness so that these efforts lead to tangible research outcomes.”

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