LG AI Research said on Tuesday it signed a main contract with D&D Pharmatech for a joint project to develop next-generation peptide drugs.

Under the partnership, LG AI Research will develop an AI model that analyses the structures of disease-causing substances. It will design suitable peptide sequences that were difficult to discover using existing methods and identify drug candidates.

D&D Pharmatech will be responsible for designing, synthesising and evaluating the candidate structures derived by AI. It will apply its own technology to optimise molecular shapes, and carry out work from oral formulation development through preclinical and clinical trials and global approval procedures.

Woo-hyung Lim (임우형), co-lead researcher at LG AI Research, said the partnership goes beyond a simple technology introduction and is a process of building bio-specialised AI that solves the complex challenge of drug development using AI. He said LG AI Research will actively cooperate to raise both the speed and the likelihood of success in developing next-generation peptide drugs based on AI protein design technology.

Seul-gi Lee (이슬기), CEO of D&D Pharmatech, said it will combine LG AI Research's AI capabilities and data-based learning know-how with D&D Pharmatech's peptide development experience to significantly raise the efficiency of AI-based drug development. She said the company will, in particular, prove its technology leadership in the global market in the field of oral peptides that have recently drawn attention, including macrocyclic peptides.

According to the two companies, peptides are bioactive substances made of short chains of amino acids that form proteins, and play a key role in precisely regulating the body's recovery and growth.

Peptides have the advantage of high safety because they act selectively only on intracellular disease-causing substances that antibody drugs find difficult to target. But they have been developed mainly as injectables because they were previously easily broken down by gastrointestinal digestive enzymes.

The two companies plan to jointly develop pill-form oral treatments as new drugs for intractable diseases and precision medicine by using AI to improve safety and absorption rates. They also said they expect AI-based molecular design technology to cut drug development time and costs and raise the clinical success rate of peptide drugs.