How the Pharma Industry Pulled Off the Pivot to COVID-19

The urgent need for tests and therapeutics has brought companies together and pushed researchers to work at breakneck speeds.

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ABOVE: MODIFIED FROM © istock.com, MARK KOLPAKOV

In mid-January, as cases of a mysterious illness climbed in China and began to appear in other parts of the world, Alex Zhavoronkov realized that this outbreak was becoming a major public health problem. As founder and chief executive officer of Insilico Medicine, a biotech startup based in Hong Kong—where measures to reduce the disease’s spread were already beginning to be put in place—he began to wonder what his company could do to help.

Insilico had never tackled viral diseases before; the company’s focus was on noninfectious conditions such as cancer, immunological diseases, and fibrosis. But Zhavoronkov realized that Insilico’s approach, which applies artificial intelligence (AI) for rapid novel drug discovery, could help identify potential therapeutics to fight the virus we now know as SARS-CoV-2.

Everyone, whether requested by the company prior­ities or just their own values, was willing to work endlessly around ...

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Meet the Author

  • Diana Kwon

    Diana is a freelance science journalist who covers the life sciences, health, and academic life.

Published In

July/August 2020

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