There’s a new collaboration between two publicly traded companies focused on using artificial intelligence to accelerate drug development.
What’s happening:
- Firefly Neuroscience (NASDAQ: AIFF) has announced a collaboration with Bright Minds Biosciences (NASDAQ: DRUG) to leverage their proprietary neuroscience technology for analyzing new data from a Phase I clinical trial of Bright Mind Bioscience’s lead compound BMB-101
How it works:
- Participants in the clinical trial were given electroencephalogram headsets which recorded brain activity at different points during the clinical trial
- One recording was done prior to being dosed, one recording was done immediately after being dosed and other recordings were done a week later both pre and post dose
- Those brain recordings were then analyzed by Firefly’s proprietary technology platform Brain Network Analytics which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to be capable of providing deeper insights into brain function and the neurological response individuals have to drugs
Why it matters:
- Being able to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technology may unlock a much better understanding of drug development for biotechnology companies and accelerate the rate of innovation in finding therapeutic compounds that are able to treat unmet medical needs as well as avoiding adverse or unintended side effects
Going deeper:
- Firefly Neuroscience’s Brain Network Analytics platform has been cleared by the United States Food and Drug Administration and is being used by multiple large pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis and Takeda
The intrigue:
- Neuroscience technology startups have been on the rise recently, with Elon Musk’s Neuralink receiving a Breakthrough Device designation from the United States Food and Drug Administration and Tether previously making an enormous venture capital investment into Blackrock Neurotech
