Poolbeg Pharma lands deal with AI firm to pinpoint effective virus drugs

US giant OneThree Biotech will lend Open Orphan spinout its state-of-the-art technology to accelerate treatment of severe respiratory infection RSV

Professor Luke O'Neill, non-executive director at Poolbeg Pharma: says one of the few benefits of the Covid-19 pandemic was that it had shown the pharmaceutical industry that it could conduct clinical trials far more effectively and rapidly than before. Picture: Fergal Phillips

Poolbeg Pharma, the infectious disease pharmaceutical company, has signed a deal with OneThree Biotech, a US artificial intelligence (AI) company, to identify new drug treatments for a contagious virus that affects 50 million people every year.

The company believes the deal will help rapidly identify new drugs and treatments for for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which it said should yield a significant amount of shareholder value. Under the terms of the deal, OneThree Biotech will ...