Dimitrios Skaltsas (Intelligencia AI): Our AI-based solutions accelerate clinical drug development

Intelligencia AI is transforming the pharmaceutical industry’s approach to drug development through the power of AI-based information. Founded in 2017, the company is pioneering the use of advanced AI algorithms to reduce risk and streamline the clinical drug development process.

Dimitra Triantafyllaki spoke with Intelligencia’s CEO and co-founder, Dimitrios Skaltsas, who explains the company’s mission of combining clinical development data, technology and expertise. Thus, it helps organizations in decision-making and predicts the chances of success. This allows for more confident and unbiased drug development decisions, ultimately accelerating the delivery of new, life-saving treatments to patients. It also refers, among others, to the company’s patented top SaaS-based product, Intelligencia Portfolio Optimizer™.

emeastartups: Tell us about the first steps of Intelligencia AI. When did it start, where, and what was the goal?

Dimitrios Skaltsas: The genesis of a company resembles, in many ways, living organisms. It requires appropriate conditions, a passion akin to falling in love where one overlooks adversities, and an acute sense of responsibility to help the company survive in its early stages. And let’s not forget a bit of luck. 

Intelligencia AI started in late 2017, and I happened to be, in many ways, in the right place at the right time. I was working in New York City and leading the domain of New Ventures for Pharmaceutical R&D at McKinsey. I was developing big data and AI solutions for drug discovery and development. My interest in the then-little-known world of artificial intelligence (AI) grew into a fascination with its possibilities. 

The more I worked in the role and with pharmaceutical clients, the more I realized that the industry needed to improve and that the status quo could be upended. This was the bridge to Intelligencia AI, which I co-founded with a former colleague and friend, Vangelis Vergetis. Significant gaps and opportunities existed in harmonizing high-quality data, a necessary foundation for successfully training any AI model. AI was very promising for better-assessing risk, which I had seen more often than not done haphazardly. 

The goal was as complex as it was altruistic, and it reflects our company vision today: to be a catalyst for change by pioneering the advancement of AI in drug development and helping to bring groundbreaking therapies to market that will transform lives.

emeastartups: Technology is now at the heart of every sector, company, and organization. How does Intelligencia AI stand out in the field of data science and cutting-edge technology?

Dimitrios Skaltsas: At Intelligencia AI, we have pushed the boundaries in our space from day one and continue to do so. As the first company to apply AI to assess the probability of the success (PoS) of new therapies, we’re a trailblazer in the space, and our U.S. patent for our core technology is a testament to that. 

I want to single out three core ingredients: purpose-built data, subject matter expertise, and accurate, transparent AI algorithms, which lie at the heart of what we do. 

• Purpose-Built Data: Data alone has become somewhat of a commodity. However, not all data are created equal. High-quality, expertly curated and purpose-built data harmonized from trustworthy sources are required to power AI models and generate reliable, actionable insights. The oh-so-true principle of “garbage in, garbage out” applies to AI like any other method: if AI algorithms are fed incorrect, incomplete, or biased data, the results will produce inaccurate, incomplete and biased answers. 

 

• Subject Matter Expertise: One day, AI may become smart enough to independently collect and cleanse data and detect if the data is compromised, e.g., incorrect, incomplete or biased. Until then, humans play a significant role in cleansing and curating the data used to train the AI models, and hiring the right mix of people – e.g., data scientists, biologists, clinicians, mathematicians, and statisticians – is crucial to a company like ours that is bringing AI to the pharma industry with its complex and challenging processes.

 

• Explainable AI Models: While AI has existed for several decades, only recent advances have enabled novel models to quickly ingest and crunch the vast amounts of data generated in drug development and generate insights in a transparent and explainable manner that instills trust in the results. Drug development, in particular, needs explainable and transparent AI to help take the pharma industry to the next level with AI-driven insights. AI alone is often perceived as a mysterious black box that hinders adoption. A lot of information goes in on one end, and on the other end, an answer seems to appear magically. How did we get from here to there? How do we know we can trust those results?

Explainable AI sheds light on which of the many input factors contributed significantly to the answer AI provides, therefore adding transparency and allowing experts to understand the drivers and perform a “sanity check.” Developing trustworthy AI is vital—it must be explainable, and methodologies must be transparent. 

Reliable data, human oversight and transparent AI models make up the backbone of trustworthy AI. Transparency, precision and accuracy matter, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, where AI-generated insights can directly impact patients’ lives. 

emeastartups: What exactly do you offer in the healthcare sector? What are your services, and how vital is AI’s role in improving healthcare?

Dimitrios Skaltsas: Most therapies in drug development will not reach patients, and of the ones that do, many will experience delays. At Intelligencia AI, we support pharmaceutical companies in developing drugs more efficiently and faster. Our AI-driven solutions help make more informed decisions to de-risk and accelerate clinical development. 

Our purpose-built AI solutions better enable pharma companies to identify promising and likely-to-fail drug candidates earlier in development. These tools allow companies to focus their resources on likely winners and save money, time and other resources by discontinuing drug candidates early on. Our data and insights from our solutions can better inform decision-making using superior AI-driven tools and help de-risk clinical development. 

To improve this traditionally long, expensive, inefficient, and unreliable risk assessment process, we developed our patented flagship SaaS-based product, Intelligencia Portfolio Optimizer™.  Portfolio Optimizer delivers on-demand access to AI-powered insights based on best-in-class, proprietary data. This solution empowers pharma stakeholders to objectively assess the probability of technical and regulatory success (PTRS) and phase transition probabilities. Equipped with this knowledge, drug companies can confidently make more informed asset, portfolio and licensing decisions.

emeastartups: The company has grown significantly since 2017. Have the goals you set at the beginning been achieved? What are some of the most significant challenges when leading a scaleup? 

Dimitrios Skaltsas: Since starting in 2017, it is fair to say that we have experienced a lot: periods of considerable growth, trepidation, hiring frenzies, significant product milestones, liquidity squeezes, award recognitions, and recently, our U.S. patent, all while working with some of the most iconic companies in our industry. The entrepreneurial and scaleup path is filled with it all. 

I am grateful for the journey we’re on. We have built an incredible team, offer a category-defining technology platform, and have fantastic customer relationships. Every day, I fall in love again with what I do. I know we are helping pharmaceutical companies better address challenges in the drug development process and, therefore, positively impacting patients’ lives. This knowledge and responsibility keep me grounded and motivated. 

Moderation is a key concept when leading a growing scaleup. At Intelligencia AI, we have been shooting for the moon, using AI to address one of the significant challenges in our industry – inherent risk. To do this, it’s all about being innovative and efficient with available resources while not overextending ourselves, whether hiring too many people too fast, trying to build too many solutions at once, expanding office space too quickly, etc. We are building to last. And this requires strong foundations. Moderation reigns supreme.

emeastartups: AI is the subject of intense criticism but also great acceptance. Do you think that the positives outweigh the negatives? Why is there all this controversy about its use at the level of organizations and states and in everyday life?

Dimitrios Skaltsas: In short, the answer is ‘yes’ to AI’s positive potential impact in all industries – not just pharma.  As with any nascent technology, AI has its fair share of skepticism and unknowns. Embracing, nurturing, and embedding it in our personal and professional lives can help humanity solve some of our biggest challenges while becoming more productive. AI could positively impact societies, but we will also see where AI fails. We all have boundaries that govern how we function as individuals, companies, and societies. I think it is appropriate to apply these boundaries to AI systems. Such boundaries hold especially true at a time when some of the most influential AI companies are locked in a race that seemingly sees safety considerations increasingly sidelined. 

AI is simultaneously fascinating and terrifying when considering building systems that may become conscientious. The adage, “God built us in his/ her image and likeness,” may have an analogue here about how humans build AI systems.

I recently answered a similar question in another interview with Authority Magazine, and I want to share my thoughts to add some more practical considerations.

1. See AI as a window of opportunity. Just because you haven’t always done it this way doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Growth requires the ability to embrace change. As I mentioned, the pharmaceutical industry faces many challenges, and AI has been and will continue to be transformational in many respects. An example from our practice is using AI to dramatically increase efficiency and accuracy when assessing a drug’s probability of success. With traditional methods, the process could take months, still be pretty subjective, and based on a relatively small amount of data. Using our AI-based product, a company can obtain an objective number based on billions of relevant data in minutes. It is truly better, cheaper and faster.
2. Know that the human element is not being erased by AI; it’s being enhanced. We must learn to often do more with the same (or less). AI is a way for all of us to do more with less. It, therefore, is a powerful new tool in your belt — embrace it as such.
3. Make AI work for where you’re at. Don’t just sign up to use AI because you feel like you have to. Be mindful of the processes you have in place that work and where AI can fit in to support and augment. Just because “everyone is doing it” doesn’t mean you must stop and jump on the bandwagon immediately. Finding the proper set of tools and use cases may take time. Vet different vendors, attend conferences, and reach out to those in your network for more insight and perspective on what you’re experiencing. Adoption of anything new doesn’t happen overnight.
4. Keep your pulse on the industry. AI is constantly evolving, and the pace of innovation is accelerating. AI is not a one-off investment; it requires constant education and retraining.
5. Embrace it. Let AI help you work smarter, not harder. Enjoy the process of learning and incorporating it into your work.   

 

emeastartups: Why did you choose New York City as your starting point? 

Dimitrios Skaltsas: As did my co-founder, I was living in New York City, so starting Intelligencia AI was a decision as much as inertia. Plus, I did not want to relocate, as NYC offers an excellent environment for cross-fertilizing ideas. The tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut hosts some of the greatest pharmaceutical companies, and there is abundant talent and capital. NYC was the appropriate birthplace and headquarters for Intelligencia AI to reimagine what’s possible in the pharma space. 

In late 2018, we opened an office in Athens, Greece, to further develop our R&D division. At one point, many of my current colleagues left Greece, lived abroad, and have now returned home, contributing to the brain gain and the growing tech ecosystem in Greece. 

Spending time in both big cities inspires and excites me and has helped create a truly international company. While the tech sector in Greece is becoming a bigger and bigger dot on the map, we have also been increasing our commercial footprint in other European countries; however, our core market is in the U.S.

emeastartups: In which other countries have you developed partnerships, and are there any plans for further expansion?

Dimitrios Skaltsas: While our solution and data focus on FDA-track interventional studies (the FDA is the regulatory body in the United States), that doesn’t restrict our work to the U.S. We have pharma companies based in Europe and APAC that work with us. As long as a company is interested in better understanding the landscape for a drug that will be submitted for review by the FDA, they benefit from working with us regardless of their location. 

Also, one of our partners is ZS, a global management consulting and technology firm. Our unique and meaningful relationship with them helps us positively impact even more pharmaceutical companies.

emeastartups: Tell us about the company’s talent. How many people are employed, and what skills do you consider before hiring a new employee?

Dimitrios Skaltsas: Globally, we are over 100 people strong with a vast array of interdisciplinary expertise. Around 90% of my colleagues have advanced degrees in their respective fields, and we support a fully hybrid work environment. Attracting candidates with the right combination of hard and soft skills and often that intangible cultural fit makes individuals stand out. If you speak to anyone at our organization, you know I am big on our corporate value system, and they realize that they are core to everything we do as an organization. 

Intelligencia AI’s core values are raising the bar, building together, being humble and caring. We assess every candidate during the interview process based on those values. Skills and domain expertise are critical to success, but knowing it’s the right person for the job – not on skills alone – is paramount.

When I conduct interviews, I often present most job candidates with a quick case study—unrelated to our business—to see how they think on their feet, integrate some creativity, do a little math, etc. How candidates respond to and answer these case study questions provides much insight.

emeastartups: What other sectors besides biopharmaceutical companies are in your portfolio? 

Dimitrios Skaltsas: We work with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies—household names—along with mid-sized pharmaceutical organizations. In addition to pharma, we work closely with our partner, ZS, in the consulting space. When I think about our pharma customers, I characterize our relationship with them as a partnership rather than a traditional customer/vendor relationship.

Over the past few months, we have made a foray into financial institutions, banks, hedge funds, etc. This industry is always interested in identifying the ‘next big thing,’ in terms of a promising drug in development or an innovative company, for its investment portfolio. It continuously looks for novel ways to make even smarter investments.

We recently published an article about how our AI-driven PTRS assessments and methodologies enable pharmaceutical companies and financial institutions to more confidently identify the most promising biotechs and drug assets to invest in

emeastartups: Interest in deep tech companies operating in the healthcare industry is soaring. Have large companies approached you for new partnerships or acquisition? 

Dimitrios Skaltsas: We often find ourselves fielding various inquiries and thoughtfully evaluating the best next move for our organization to continue its growth and positive impact in the space. As mentioned, we have a strategic partnership with ZS, a consulting and technology company in our space.

emeastartups: For all current and aspiring entrepreneurs who may be reading this, what advice would you share with them? 

Dimitrios Skaltsas: Forget about any glossy wrapping you may have in mind – this will be one of the most difficult and soul-wrenching experiences you could have. And yet one that will be deeply transformative and rewarding. Fall in love with what you build. Be truthful to yourself. Work hard. Care for the people you work with. And take care of yourself. Listen to your customers – most of the time, they do know better. Do not overpromise to anyone. Bear in mind that everything tends to take longer and be more complex than you expect it to be. Manage your expectations and those of others. Stay humble. Be a good listener while learning to trust your instincts. Focus on the relationships and things that truly matter. Share and give back. Be tough. And be kind.