Baidu enters the medical field with the concept of robots

Not long ago, Baidu CEO Robin Li led the establishment of Baidu Biosciences, which held an opening ceremony for its Beijing central laboratory and officially disclosed for the first time its immune robot ("ImmuBot") designed based on a de novo biological computing engine, which can accurately reprogram the immune system and treat various immune-related diseases.

The robot is a targeted therapy product, which is assembled from multiple immune function warheads, tissue navigation warheads, microenvironment sensors , programmable controllers and other components, and can achieve complex mechanisms of action that traditional antibody drugs cannot achieve.

The whole story

It is reported that Robin Li plans to raise $2 billion in three years for biopharmaceutical research and development. The company's founding funds mainly come from Robin Li's personal funds and the personal funds of Liu Wei, the former CEO of Baidu Ventures.

The reason for doing this is that they hope to surpass a number of AI+ pharmaceutical companies and most Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies that focus on research and development, and create original medical products.

Regarding this plan, Liu Wei, CEO of Biopharmaceuticals, said that in order to become a new force in drug manufacturing, the company's benchmark is Genentech. As for the selection of products, the company's head said that the human immune system can respond to physical abnormalities in a targeted manner, but as the body's functions decline, various health problems may arise. The immune robot launched by Biopharmaceuticals that simulates the natural state is designed to regulate the malfunctioning immune system to treat diseases.

What is an immune robot?

Immune robots are equivalent to a new treatment method. Current drugs act on a single protein to solve complex immune problems, which are prone to problems such as immune escape and immune resistance. In this regard, Liu Wei believes that a more complex drug action mechanism is needed, that is, to use robots to bring more proteins to the immune system. If one protein has a problem, there will be a second or third "substitute".

The emergence of technology may bring new possibilities to the pharmaceutical industry.

At present, the research and development of innovative drugs is becoming increasingly difficult, with high costs and increasingly unsatisfactory sales. The high risks and long cycles make it difficult for general pharmaceutical companies to survive. After decades of iterative development, AI technology has also reached new heights and can perform biological computing.

In order to make this robot, researchers need to conduct rounds of screening through biological experiments. Using biological computing methods, this screening can be completed more quickly and efficiently in virtual space to find certain specific proteins. Then, these proteins are added with "sensors" and "logic gates" so that they can keenly sense the microenvironment and be triggered in specific environments, such as tumor microenvironments.

Based on AI technology, Baidu Biosciences is building a large-scale innovative drug asset portfolio, including more than 10 types of independent target mining projects, more than 30 component R&D projects, and more than 10 independent and cooperative drug R&D projects, involving a large number of tumors and autoimmune diseases that are highly prevalent in China, such as gastric cancer, liver cancer, etc.

The driving force of the entire system is the "AI big model-driven high-throughput dry-wet closed-loop biological computing engine". It includes key technologies such as a multi-omics immune map with trillions of relationships, a protein/immune computing big model with hundreds of billions of parameters, and a high-throughput immune simulation experimental system with billions of data production. The immune robot was created based on this.

It is reported that the product is expected to enter clinical trials next year.

Baidu's big ambition

Medical care and pharmaceuticals are both relatively conservative industries. Pharmaceuticals, unlike the Internet and consumer goods, should not adopt methods that stimulate consumption.

Li Yanhong has long had ambitions in the medical field. He founded the medical division in 2015. Although he later closed the medical division, he still invests in related fields. Liu Wei also said, "Ultimately, we want to create an artificial immune system."

However, can a technology company that crosses over into the pharmaceutical industry and has no experience in new drug development make good products by just recruiting people and investing? Can AI technology really make new products a natural result when it comes to innovative drug development?

Not to mention how difficult medical research is, the scientific community currently does not have enough understanding of the immune system, the application of AI in drug development is still in its infancy, and even AI technology itself is not mature.

Of course, it is necessary to introduce artificial intelligence and big data into pharmaceutical research and development, but it is impossible to achieve success overnight. In terms of funding, Baidu has an advantage over most companies, but Baidu alone cannot complete the entire big data industry.

To follow the ideal path, China's scientific research needs to have a solid foundation, and mainstream pharmaceutical companies need to increase their R&D investment. This is not something that a "new drug-making force" can accomplish.

The Internet's approach is not suitable for medicine. Baidu may provide new ideas for China's new drug research and development, but not necessarily new products.