‘Canada is the place to be if you’re interested in AI’

Christine Allen, head of biotech firm Intrepid Labs shares her perspective on how this country has become an AI powerhouse, and how the technology can radically improve the drug development process.

Christine Allen, a chemistry professor at the University of Toronto and the CEO of biotech firm Intrepid Labs, is uniquely situated at the intersection of academia and about-to-boom business. In the past year, Intrepid has built an AI-driven robotic platform, a “self-driving lab” where computers handle the repetitive grunt work so that Allen and her (human) team can quickly and efficiently identify the best way to deliver a drug to a patient.

In an industry plagued by protracted timelines and a massive failure rate, self-driving labs have the potential to radically reshape Canada’s biotech sector, creating new opportunities for startups, multinationals, workers and, most importantly, the patients who stand to benefit from new and optimized life-saving drugs. By harnessing the power of automation, Allen’s company is already formulating drugs that can outperform the FDA-approved options currently dispensed by pharmacies.

Allen is one of the speakers at this year’s Elevate Festival, Canada’s annual technology and innovation conference, which will also feature tech journalist Kara Swisher, Lightspeed CEO Dax Dasilva and Shopify’s Harley Finkelstein. Here, Allen talks about what AI is doing for us, why Toronto is the place to be working in this field and how the tools she’s developing could transform the future for a stubborn person who refuses to take their daily medication on schedule.

Bringing a drug to market can take more than a decade. How are you looking to change that process?
It does take a long time to get drugs through development. But even with all that time and effort, there’s a 90 percent failure rate. Right now, formulation is something that is often under-resourced and under-prioritized. Yet, it can really influence the safety and efficacy of that drug. We’re looking to identify the best formulation.

It sounds like those failures can be costly for a number of reasons. Why has this area typically been under-resourced?
If you consider oral administration, such as a tablet or a capsule, more than a billion different possible combinations of materials can be used. Now, who is going to evaluate a billion possible combinations of materials? That has fostered a tendency to go with what we know. We take something that’s off-the-shelf and has been used before, but that’s likely not optimal.

Can you give me an example of a formulation you’re working on that could represent a breakthrough, particularly for patients?
Many drugs are chronically indicated for oral administration but are associated with very poor patient adherence: We take medication when we feel we need to, but if we feel the drug is actually working — or maybe if there are some side effects — we may stop taking it.

We’re developing long-acting injectables to address many of those issues. Essentially, we’re taking a drug that is administered on a daily basis and putting it in a formulation where it can be injected once every three or six months. That takes a burden off caregivers and the healthcare system — and more importantly, it improves the lives and outcomes of patients.

I know you’re not referring directly to my family members, but you could be!
Oh, I’m in the same situation. My son just had antibiotics — he had a rash and the minute the rash was gone, he wanted to stop taking them. This is just what we do.

What would you like people to know about the potential AI holds for drug development?
AI is not magic; it’s a tool. For me, it’s about demonstrating what our technology can do. I show people case studies where we have created a new formulation of a drug in less than a week, and that formulation outperforms the FDA-approved product currently on the market.

How are self-driving labs changing Canada’s biotech industry?
I have to say, Canada is the place to be if you’re interested in AI. Multinationals are moving in to establish a presence here. We saw that with Unilever, we’ve seen it with Nvidia, Samsung, Sanofi, Roche. Why? The talent here.

I see a very diverse talent pool, and I can tell you — it’s phenomenal. I recently attended a breakfast for women in STEM at the Accelerate Conference and the room was full of young, diverse women — all interested in or currently working in AI and robotics in this country.

There aren’t many women at my stage in my career in AI, drug formulation, drug discovery, but you see the talent coming up right now and the future is very bright. I sat in that room and I had tears in my eyes.

Can you describe the new breed of scientists you’re seeing?
They’re certainly beyond where I was when I was their age. They are bright, they are savvy, they are entrepreneurial, they are leaders. The energy they have is palpable. It’s very inspiring.

It’s been a year since you launched Intrepid Labs. What makes Toronto a good home for your company?
In Toronto, we’re just too humble. We don’t toot our own horn, but it is genuinely one of the absolute best places to be — it’s the centre of the universe when it comes to AI. That’s because of Geoffrey Hinton and all of these great greats.

In terms of AI, you’ve got the academic excellence, you’ve got the startups, and you’ve got the multinational presence. Big companies believe they just can’t afford to not be here.

Can you share some of your early successes with Intrepid?
First of all, we were delighted to secure the wet lab space in JLABS. With our proprietary AI-driven platform, we were able to generate our own data and share that with prospective commercial partners. We’ve now secured two commercial partnerships, which is huge for us. And we’ve got many others in negotiation.

We’ve identified six lead assets [compounds that show promise as new treatments], and we’ve generated significant data around two of them. This entire year has been a sprint — but an exciting sprint, where you’re very motivated to keep running.

Ten years from now, what do you hope to have achieved through your work?
The best possible outcome broadly is that we have made a real difference when it comes to success rates in drug development and that the drugs make it to patients and are bettering their lives.

My father has had this issue with his eyes, and it’s one of the things that made me focus on this failure rate in drug development. He would hear about these new drugs, and he’d say, “Well, something’s in clinical development, Christine, so it’ll probably be available soon.”

I said, “No, Dad, it may not even make it through clinical development.” It’s really crazy that we’ve accepted this 90 percent failure rate.

I would like to see AI embedded to the extent that it can be used through discovery and formulation (like what we’re doing at Intrepid), and also through clinical development. Not just in one area, but through that pipeline to really address this failure rate.

In 2019, you started a book club to support women in STEM. Can you name a recent favourite?
Lessons in Chemistry was one of the most enjoyable last year. The book club is also about more than the books. As you can imagine, it’s also about the community that’s created. We all go through many of the same things. It’s just like-minded people getting together and sharing our stories.

 
Christine Allen is speaking as part of the Guardians of the Cure: Putting Patients First in the Science of Drug Development panel at Elevate Festival on October 2. Visit elevatefestival.ca to learn more.