Every pharmaceutical product from injectable vaccines to tablets, relies on formulations that significantly impact the efficacy of the medicine. Traditionally, creating these formulations has been slow, expensive, and a manual trial and error process, often settling for “good enough” rather than optimal results.  

To address these challenges, Dr Christine Allen’s team collaborated with Dr Alán Aspuru-Guzik’s research group to integrate robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence into the drug formulation process. Their goal was to enhance formulation quality while automating and streamlining development. The result was Intrepid.  

"Intrepid is an example of how versatile self-driving lab technology is,” said Dr Alán Aspuru-Guzik, director of the Acceleration Consortium. “Spun out of an academic collaboration with the Allen Lab, SDL AI and experimental technology led to a great acceleration of drug formulation capabilities. I am excited that the AC has spun out its first SDL company using this technology."

Since its inception, Intrepid has grown into an independent entity, and the Acceleration Consortium has since received the largest CFREF grant ever given to a Canadian university.  

"Growing up alongside the Acceleration Consortium provided us with a solid foundation, allowing us to quickly scale and innovate,” said Dr. Pauric Bannigan, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Intrepid. “The visionary leadership of our founding team, including Drs Christine Allen, Riley Hickman, and Alán Aspuru-Guzik, has been fundamental in catapulting Intrepid to the forefront of pharmaceutical innovation. Their collective expertise and relentless drive set us apart in the industry."

Intrepid's motto, "Building better medicines, faster," reflects their innovative approach.

"Traditionally, the extensive time and cost required to develop formulations meant that once a reasonably effective one was found, further exploration stopped," said Dr Bannigan. "However, at Intrepid, our technology allows us to continue testing and refining formulations to find superior options faster than traditional approaches."

Using SDL technology, Intrepid is exploring a vast design space.  

"We estimate that there are over 10 billion possible formulations using currently approved materials, but only about 20,000 have been made and characterized," said Dr Bannigan. "This represents a vast, mostly untapped potential to enhance medicine. With SDLs, we can rapidly develop and test formulations around the clock, significantly accelerating our progress."

Intrepid's SDL, named Valiant, has already developed breakthrough formulations for oral drug delivery as well as long-acting injectable depots that are significantly more effective than existing options.  

"By leveraging AI in SDLs, we identify ineffective formulations quickly and use the insights gained to expedite the discovery of effective ones far beyond traditional methods," Dr Bannigan adds. “And we’re just getting started.”

Visit intrepidlabs.tech to learn more.