Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, announced on Monday a pilot project in the United Arab Emirates to discover the first novel drug candidate for oncology therapeutics, with the entire process from target identification to preclinical nomination conducted locally.
Historically, drug discovery and development are complex and lengthy processes, often spanning over 10 years, costing over $2 billion per drug, and failing in more than 90 per cent of cases.
In 2024, the U.S. FDA cleared only 50 novel drugs, representing a stark delay in novel therapeutic approvals throughout the industry
Insilico’s new initiative will accelerate these historical timeline delays by leveraging its proprietary Pharma.AI platform, which provides a comprehensive drug discovery and development solution spanning biology, generative chemistry, clinical medicine, and scientific research.
The UAE drug discovery project will focus on medium-novelty and genetically validated synthetic-lethality targets for the treatment of solid tumors. Insilico will deploy four local scientists, including two computational chemists, one medicinal chemist, and one translational biologist, to lead the project cycle.
Insilico plans for this project to move rapidly and serve as a template for replication across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC); with project milestones including:
- Target finalization by third quarter 2025
- Hit series generation in less than 30 days
- Lead optimization to sub-10 nM potency with drug-like ADMET in less than six months
- Full pre-clinical data package completed within 18 month
“Our Masdar City centre already hosts ~60 AI and biotech specialists. By tasking four of them with a complete end-to-end discovery run, we aim to prove that any GCC nation equipped with cloud compute, wet-lab automation and local talent can create world-class therapeutics,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine. “If the pilot hits its timelines, we will deploy identical micro-teams across the region, accelerating the sovereign drug-discovery capabilities where it matters most.”
Discovery cell in Riyadh next year
In Saudi Arabia, leveraging the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Investment (MISA) and the strategic Series D2 investment by Prosperity7 Ventures in 2022, Insilico plans to build a mirrored discovery cell in Riyadh in 2026.
In Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman, discussions are underway with national research funds and biotech clusters to deploy satellite Pharma.AI instances and exchange UAE-generated protocols, with first sites expected online in 2027.
Alex Aliper, PhD, Co-Founder and President of Insilico Medicine, added: “Insilico’s Masdar City AI Centre was established through a special initiative with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO). Building on this success, we look forward to expanding partnerships with organizations across the Gulf states. As the Gulf states invest heavily in deep technology, channeling this capital into the development of life-saving medicines offers the fastest way to diversify economies and extend healthy longevity.”
Insilico has already made steady inroads into the Middle East. In February 2023, the company opened the AI Research and Development Center in Abu Dhabi with the support from ADIO, which is not only its regional presence in the UAE, but the leading AI-enabled biotech facility in the Middle East.
Building on the foundation of the AI Centre, Insilico has actively pursued industry collaborations and advanced AI algorithm development. In August 2024, Insilico published a paper in npj Aging and launched the AI-driven multimodal Precious GPT series, designed for anti-aging and longevity research. In January 2025, in partnership with the University of Toronto and other collaborators, Insilico published a study in Nature Biotechnology detailing the design of KRAS inhibitors using quantum-classical hybrid models.
The company was also recognized with the Health Innovation Trailblazer Award from the UAE Genetic Diseases Society for its end-to-end drug discovery platform, Pharma.AI, and its diverse drug pipelines.
Insilico first described the concept of using generative AI for the design of novel molecules in a peer-reviewed journal in 2016, then continued to develop the commercially available Pharma.AI platform, which powered the wholly owned pipeline of 30 assets established since 2021, with 10 having received IND clearance, setting a benchmark for AI-driven drug discovery and development.
