Manas AI now cuts cancer drug discovery time to just four months by using machine learning. Dr. Mukherjee said, "AI buys time and cost in the front end, but what it does not change yet is the cost of running a trial." This new tech helps create stronger medicine candidates.
Dr. Mukherjee explained that Manas AI is tackling the problem of rising drug costs by combining machine learning with basic principles of physics and chemistry.
Instead of testing billions of existing chemicals one by one, their software identifies weak spots on disease-causing proteins and creates new drug molecules from scratch to block them.
This process was previously done manually by human researchers over a decade but now takes just two hours with Manas AI's algorithms.
Manas AI's algorithms, when combined with automated robotic lab testing, can finish each design-and-test cycle in three weeks.
This results in experimental cancer candidates that are up to 200 times stronger than existing competitor drugs on the market.
However, Dr. Mukherjee cautioned that curing cancer isn't a one-time solution since every cancer is biologically distinct, and complex diseases like pancreatic and stomach cancers remain major hurdles.
Dr. Mukherjee stressed that while AI can speed up early lab discovery, human clinical trials, manufacturing, and government approvals still take years and increase costs.
He said, "AI buys time and cost in the front end, but what it does not change yet is the cost of running a trial and the regulatory clock."
He called on India and China to simplify testing rules without compromising safety checks to further reduce drug development costs.