First human clinical trials with AI-developed drugs to take place very soon

Isomorphic Labs, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet DeepMind, is on the verge of a pivotal step in drug development: The company is preparing the first human clinical trials for drugs designed using artificial intelligence (AI). This could be a breakthrough for the pharmaceutical industry.

AI-developed medicine - how does that work?

The technology used by Isomorphic Labs to develop AI drugs is based on DeepMind's award-winning AlphaFold system, which is able to accurately predict protein structures and model their interactions with other molecules. This enables new drugs to be developed with unprecedented speed and accuracy. According to Colin Murdoch, President of Isomorphic Labs and Chief Business Officer at DeepMind, the start of human trials is "very close". The company is currently increasing staff numbers to work on the trials.

If everything goes according to plan, this could have far-reaching consequences for the pharmaceutical industry. Traditionally, drug development is a lengthy, costly and risky process, with a success rate of only around 10% in early trials. Isomorphic Labs aims to use AI to speed up these processes considerably, reduce costs and significantly increase the chances of success. The first internal drug candidates, including in the fields of oncology and immunology, are already in the development pipeline.

Who is behind Isomorphic Labs?

Isomorphic Labs was founded in 2021 and has since entered into strategic partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly and Novartis. In April 2025, the company raised more than $600 million in investment funding, which will be use to accelerate the further development of AI-based drug development and enable clinical trials of the active ingredients.

The vision of Isomorphic Labs and DeepMind goes beyond accelerating individual development processes. The long-term goal is to use AI to develop a kind of "cure-all" method in which suitable active ingredients are developed based on clinical diagnoses. In the words of Murdoch:

One day we hope to be able to say — well, here’s a disease, and then click a button and out pops the design for a drug to address that disease.

If the upcoming clinical trials are successful, this could revolutionize drug development and enable faster access to innovative therapies for a wide range of diseases. According to Murdoch, anti-cancer drugs are also in development.