Top AI companies join hands to discover novel drugs for DMD

Jul 20 2018

Insilico Medicine a leader in artificial intelligence for drug discovery, biomarker development and aging research, announced a research collaboration agreement with A2A Pharmaceuticals, Inc. A2A is a biotechnology company headquartered in New York and focused on development of novel drugs for unmet needs in oncology, drug resistant bacterial infections, and other life threatening diseases.

The companies agreed to join forces to create a new company called "Consortium.AI" , which will apply the latest advances in AI to discovery of novel small molecules for the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and other rare orphan diseases. Computationally pre-optimized new drug candidates have already been designed for targets validated through Insilico's artificial intelligence system A2A Pharmaceuticals will assume the management of the new company, provide the development expertise for the newly discovered compounds and should be contacted for the licensing of the compounds.

"We are pleased to partner with Insilico Medicine, combining our strengths and complementary technologies to accelerate advancement of better therapeutics into the clinic for the patients that need them.", said Dr. Elena Diez Cecilia, Head of Business Development at A2A Pharmaceuticals. "Muscular Dystrophy is a debilitating and terminal degenerative condition that causes muscle inflammation and wasting, and there is a huge need for more effective therapies ", she said.

Both companies will collaborate on research programs devoted to the development of therapeutic approaches for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and other severe genetic disorders. Insilico Medicine's technology applies advances in deep neural networks to identifying critical disease targets and generation of novel chemistry using next-generation artificial intelligence. A2A uses proprietary computational tools including artificial intelligence to design highly selective therapeutics for difficult to drug targets like protein-protein interactions.

"A2A Pharmaceuticals has a team of highly talented drug hunters with a proven track record in discovery, development and licensing of the drug candidates. We are very happy to partner with their team to address the unmet medical needs of patients who are desperately waiting for solutions. This is fantastic application for AI ", said Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine.

The companies agreed to collaborate on drug discovery programs, empowering Insilico AI's biology and target discovery engine with A2A's state-of-the-art chemical design expertise in drug development. Consortium AI will bridge the ecosystems of two rapidly expanding AI-companies to enable dramatically faster and less expensive development of more effective therapeutics.