SK Biopharmaceuticals(326030) said on the 2nd it will introduce 128 units of Nvidia's latest graphics processing unit (GPU), the B200. This is an artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator. SK Biopharmaceuticals plans to use AI to develop new drugs.
The introduction was made through Haein, a domestic data cluster built by SK Telecom. The contract is worth 17 billion won and is an annual subscription. SK Biopharmaceuticals expects this to secure computing resources and enable development of AI tailored to research purposes.
SK Biopharmaceuticals uses AI from discovering drug candidates to conducting research. New drug development usually takes more than 10 years. If AI is properly used, experiments and analysis can be shortened to speed up development. AI will also be deployed for open innovation.
SK Biopharmaceuticals will also shift translational research to AI. Translational research is the process of connecting animal experiments to human clinical trials. The company also plans to build a large language model (LLM) for in-house tasks. Lee Dong-hoon, president of SK Biopharmaceuticals, said, "AI is the key that will determine competitiveness in new drug development," adding, "We will improve research and development (R&D) speed and efficiency."