The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea announced today that 26 projects have been selected for the Federated Learning-Based New Drug Development Acceleration Project and officially launched the initiative.
Federated learning is a decentralized method that enables institutions to analyze data without sharing it directly. Institutions perform internal analyses and send only the results to a central server, ensuring data privacy while still benefiting from the analysis.
This joint initiative aims to reduce the costs and time associated with new drug development using AI models based on federated learning.
Since its inception in April, the project team has chosen 26 specific tasks in three areas through a competitive application process: Federated Learning Platform Construction, Utilization and Quality Management of New Drug Development Data, and AI Solution Development.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Health and Welfare will fund the research projects with a $26 million budget over five years, extending to 2028.
Kwon Hyun Jun, Director of Basic Research Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, expressed optimism about the project. He said, “We anticipate that the high-quality new drug development data accumulated by various institutions will be safely utilized, leading to the development of robust AI-based drug development platforms and solutions.”
Go Hyung Woo, Director of Advanced Medical Support at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, added, “We will actively support AI and data R&D to drive innovations in future healthcare and pharmaceuticals while contributing to improving public health.”