This could also lead to an interesting race dynamic between biotech/pharma companies in the near future. If a novel disease target protein is identified and DeepMind decides to license their technology, all companies would in theory have access to the same structural information at the same time. Then it becomes a matter of who can execute screening, medicinal chemistry optimization, and clinical evaluation the fastest. Having a strategy in place to be the first to obtain patents for chemical matter modulating that target protein would also be a large advantage in this kind of situation.
This could also lead to an interesting race dynamic between biotech/pharma companies in the near future. If a novel disease target protein is identified and DeepMind decides to license their technology, all companies would in theory have access to the same structural information at the same time. Then it becomes a matter of who can execute screening, medicinal chemistry optimization, and clinical evaluation the fastest. Having a strategy in place to be the first to obtain patents for chemical matter modulating that target protein would also be a large advantage in this kind of situation.
See this writeup
https://www.blopig.com/blog/2020/12/casp14-what-google-deepminds-alphafold-2-really-achieved-and-what-it-means-for-protein-folding-biology-and-bioinformatics/