AI dreamed up four new candidate drugs in Bengaluru — now India's science ministry is backing them

India's Technology Development Board has signed an agreement with Bengaluru-based Peptris Technologies under a Rs 172 crore (about $18 million) project to move four AI-discovered experimental drugs toward trials — candidates for neuromuscular disorders and cancer, hair loss, neuropathy and diabetes. The government's Rs 86 crore (about $9 million) share comes as optionally convertible debt: public money taking the early risk so the science can move faster.