How AI can help develop a drug to treat coronavirus

Baricitinib is a drug typically prescribed to patients with aches and pains from rheumatoid arthritis. But it might also offer relief from something more. In recent weeks, researchers at London-based BenevolentAI have been exploring the use of existing drugs as treatments for Covid-19, the new strain of coronavirus that has had drastic repercussions on global markets and left thousands dead in its wake. Specifically, the British start-up has looked to artificial intelligence to crunch vast amounts of public data to find a drug that could be used to treat patients while a new vaccine is conjured. "Given the scale and rapid spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus… there is an immediate need for medicines that can help before a vaccine can be produced," BenevolentAI wrote in a paper in the Lancet, a medical journal.