IGC Pharma Announces Collaboration to Integrate AI into Clinical Trials

POTOMAC, Md., December 08, 2023–(BUSINESS WIRE)–IGC Pharma, Inc. (“IGC” or the “Company”) (NYSE American: IGC)  announced an Artificial Intelligence (AI) collaboration with Los Andes University’s Center for Research and Training in Artificial Intelligence (“CINFONIA”). The partnership aims to leverage Generative AI (AI) to analyze variations in disease signatures among patients, enabling IGC Pharma to identify individuals more likely to respond to treatment and subsequently accelerate the delivery of treatments to patients.

CINFONIA is the Center for Research and Training in Artificial Intelligence led by Professor Pablo Arbelaez at the University of Los Andes Department of Biomedical Engineering. CINFONIA integrates academic excellence, ethical principles, and responsible research to fulfill its mission of transforming the world with Artificial Intelligence for the benefit of humanity.

IGC Pharma and CINFONIA jointly intend to develop and train deep learning algorithms based on state-of-the- art transformer architectures to predict the temporal progression of approximately 1,500 physiological and psychological variables for each patient enrolled in the IGC-AD1 Phase 2 clinical trial.

These variables encompass neuropsychiatric scales, blood pressure, diet, and more intricate elements such as genetic markers and over 100 other biomarkers. The team has become implementing a deep learning algorithm to develop an adversary-based optimization methodology to enable the interpretation of non-linear relationships between these input variables and treatment outcomes, like efficacy and adverse events. The strategic integration of AI is an essential initiative for IGC Pharma as the Company is pursuing five assets developed to target Alzheimer’s disease. These assets include IGC-AD1, TGR-63, LMP, IGC-1C, and IGC-M3, which are in different stages of development.

Ram Mukunda, CEO of IGC Pharma, commented, “Often Alzheimer’s patients face years of uncertainty and delayed definitive diagnosis, potentially resulting in the worsening of their condition. The implications of AI integration are profound, as it can help reduce risk in costly clinical trials and potentially get medicine to Alzheimer’s patients faster. We believe this partnership provides IGC Pharma with a competitive advantage in the pharmaceutical industry as implementing AI algorithms may enable us to identify and understand previously unknown patterns in data sets. We eagerly anticipate showcasing our strategic approach at Biotech Showcase 2024 during JP Morgan Healthcare Week, spotlighting IGC Pharma’s strides in AI development.”

Professor Pablo Arbelaez, Director of CINFONIA, commented, “We look forward to collaborating with IGC Pharma on analyzing data from the Phase 2 IGC-AD1 trial. We believe that deep learning algorithms can potentially reveal hidden relationships in clinical trial data that cannot be identified through manual analysis alone. In line with our mission to promote socially responsible research with high social impact, this partnership can potentially improve the treatment efficacy of IGC-AD1 and provide relief to millions of people with Alzheimer’s disease.”

Professor Arbelaez received his PhD from the Université Paris-Dauphine in 2005 and was an AI- Researcher at the University of California (Berkeley) from 2007-2014. He has extensive experience using AI in medicine, biology, and computer vision. He was recognized with the AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Award Honorable Mention for his contribution in computer vision placing him among the 100 most influential researchers in his discipline in the last decade.