Deargen, an artificial intelligence-based pharma-tech company, said on Tuesday that it began the full-scale operation of the iDear Center, an institute for AI convergence development and research of new drugs.

The center in Dongtan, Gyeonggi-do, is the largest wet lab run by domestic artificial intelligence-based drug developing companies. It conducts direct synthesis and efficacy testing of substances discovered and designed with Deargen's advanced drug discovery platform.

It also plays a central role in a virtuous circle that allows the use of high-quality experimental data for advancing AI platforms, according to Deargen.

The company said that the iDear Center would target high-unmet demand for anti-cancer drugs, identifying and validating novel targets and establishing an in-house pipeline focused on first-in-class drugs.

Through the establishment of the wet lab, Deargen has completed its sustainable drug development platform, Deargen iDears. The company added that this new AI-based drug-developing end-to-end platform could perform initial research processes such as target discovery, hit material discovery, lead material optimization, synthesis experiment and pharmacological efficacy tests, and in-house data production.

"Our goal is to produce more than four material patents this year," Chief Development Officer Bae In-hwan said, "We have already begun conducting verification studies on various candidate materials inside the institute."

Deargen CEO Kang Kil-soo said, "I think Deargen's competitiveness is its solid AI-based technology and an environment where the best researchers studying drug development for decades can cooperate.”

Kang added that although it is a difficult task, the company will use the full operation of the iDear Center as an occasion to produce more active and tangible results in developing new drugs.