Simulate before you spend
No one makes a chip without simulating it first. Molecules still go to the clinic unread.
Two economies, one center each
Every product in the digital economy runs on a chip. Every decision in pharma, to build, buy, sell or fund, is a decision about a molecule. We call that the Molecule Economy, and like the chip economy it has one component at its center and an entire market of builders, buyers, sellers and funders around it.
The order of operations
The two economies differ in one important way: when they find out whether the component works.
- Design
- Simulate
- Make
- Ship
The costly step comes after the simulated one. Errors are found on screen, not in the fab.
- Discover
- Preclinical
- Trial
- Approve?
The trial is the first real test of whether the drug works, in whom, and why. It is also the most expensive one.
- Discover
- Read
- Trial
- Approve
Simulate the molecule inside patients’ cells first. Go into the trial with the indication, the patients and the partner drug already read.
Chip design became an engineering discipline when simulation came before fabrication. Nobody would tape out a processor on the strength of how similar designs performed in the past; they simulate this design, at the level of its circuits, before committing to make it.
Why drug development has not worked that way
Biology has been too complex to simulate at the level that matters: a drug acting on its targets inside a whole cell, and the cascade of interactions that follows. So the industry has relied on proxies, animal models and, more recently, models trained on the outcomes of past trials. A model trained on history can only tell you how similar molecules did before. It cannot simulate this molecule in these patients.
What simulating the molecule looks like
infinitusbio's Macro-connectionist Multi-Agent AI digitally clones patients' cells as whole-cell simulations of more than 200,000 interacting agents. It applies a drug's known targets and reads what the cell does: where the drug works, in whom, and why. If the molecule falls short on its own, the same read can be repeated with the standard of care or other drugs to find the combination worth testing.
The read does not replace the trial, just as simulation does not replace the fab. It changes what you take into it.
The read before the bet
In a chip program, the expensive step is the last one you take, after the design has been checked. In a drug program it is too often the first real check. Putting the read first is how the Molecule Economy can make better bets.