Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Starpharma (ASX:SPL, US OTC:SPHRY), Chief Executive Officer Cheryl Maley
Lel Smits: As AI transforms drug discovery and development, the opportunity to harness new technology while keeping patients’ scientific outcomes and long-term shareholder value at the centre is evolving. Starpharma is advancing its Dendrima technology across areas, including oncology, while navigating this rapidly changing biotech landscape. Ahead of presenting at Australian Shareholders Association Investor Summit, Future Fortunes, Human Edge, Investing in the Age of AI, I’m joined by Starpharma’s CEO, Cheryl Malley, to discuss the opportunities in AI use in drug development and biotechnology.
Cheryl, welcome back to the Stock Network.
Cheryl Maley: Thanks so much, Lel, for having me. Now, AI is rapidly changing drug discovery and development.
Lel Smits: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for AI in biotech and also where does the human expertise remain critical?
Cheryl Maley: I see a huge opportunity for more broader use of AI in drug discovery and development. Drug development can often take 10 to 15 years and sometimes longer, even for smaller companies, biotech companies. And it’s often associated with high risk and many times high reward.
But using AI and using it wisely through that discovery and development phase, we’re learning very quickly, can shorten timelines and reduce the risk significantly. And the way in which it does that is that there is multiple areas of which you can access data and AI tools that can increase predictability as it relates to target development or which assets to develop, how to design them, what will be the outcome, which always is important. But in this space, it can contribute to reducing that timeline for development and reducing the risk that we can often see in those various phases of drug development.
So I see it has enormous potential and it is being embraced widely, which is great. And we at Starpharma are definitely on a journey in the last 18 months of more intense efforts focused on using AI. And where it doesn’t, where it, you know, it’s an enabler, but we still find that we obviously need to do that final decision-making.
The judgment still sits within the experience and the knowledge that we have, particularly for Starpharma. We’ve been working in this space for over 20 years. So we don’t let AI make those final decisions, but we allow it to enable our business.
Lel Smits: Yes. And Cheryl, as technology moves quickly, how do you ensure that the focus remains on delivering those better patient outcomes and also creating sustainable long-term shareholder value?
Cheryl Maley: It’s such an important question because it is so tempting, I think, to get carried away that, you know, in this state of AI that becomes the focus. But for us, we remain absolutely relentless on keeping the patient outcome as our central focus.
So when you’re driven by that, you do always come back to that the tools become the enabler. We keep patients at the centre of the work that we do and the purpose of why we do it. Then the other part is that by us working on our platform and the value that it can bring to patients, we know that we’re focused on that right space for sustainable long-term value for our shareholders.
The other part around AI in what we’re observing is that when it’s improving our productivity and our efficiency, we know also that we are using our capital much more wisely, which has got to be of value, I’m sure, to our shareholders, knowing that we are working really efficiently and, you know, and we will continue to focus on building that value within our platform and our assets and our partnerships. So AI is the enabler, but, you know, that’s going to bring what we think the greatest value for patients and our shareholders.
Lel Smits: Cheryl, thank you for the insights from Starpharma and look forward to hearing more at Australian Shareholders Association Investor Summit.
Cheryl Maley: Thanks so much, Lel.
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