Fosun Pharma and Insilico Medicine Partner on Drug Discovery and Development Using Artificial Intelligence

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Fosun Pharma), a China-based healthcare group, and Insilico Medicine, a US-based artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery and development company, announced on Jan. 11, 2022 that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to advance the discovery and development of drugs targeting a number of different targets globally using AI technology.

The partnership includes an AI-driven drug discovery R&D collaboration on four biological targets as well as the co-development of Insilico’s glutaminyl-peptide cyclotransferase-like (QPCTL) program. Under the agreement, Insilico will receive a total upfront payment of $13 million for the four R&D collaboration projects and the co-development of the QPCTL program. Insilico will also receive potential milestone-based payments and share commercialization profits from the QPCTL program. Fosun Pharma will also make an equity investment in Insilico.

Through the collaboration, Insilico will combine its end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery platforms with Fosun Pharma’s clinical development and commercial expertise. Their goal is to discover and develop a portfolio of novel therapeutics. According to the agreement, Insilico will take responsibility for delivering a preclinical candidate for the QPCTL program and advancing it to the investigational new drug (IND) stage (via its R&D team). After that, Fosun Pharma will conduct human clinical studies and co-develop the candidate globally. Fosun Pharma’s R&D team will also nominate four therapeutic targets to be assessed by Insilico’s AI platform and R&D team in parallel programs.

In addition, as part of the collaboration, Fosun Pharma will gain access to Insilico’s PandaOmics and Chemistry42 platforms to advance its own internal AI-powered discovery and development efforts.

“We are pleased to enter into strategic collaboration with Insilico. Fosun Pharma is committed to promoting innovative R&D and is oriented towards fulfilling unmet clinical needs and improving products’ accessibility. We look forward to working with Insilico to leverage the technological and clinical development strengths of both companies, jointly improving the efficiency of innovative drug R&D and benefiting more patients worldwide," said Yifang Wu, chairman and CEO of Fosun Pharma, in a company press release.

“In partnering with Fosun Pharma, a leading pharmaceutical company, we begin a new era of AI-powered end-to-end drug discovery and development as human-machine collaboration becoming the new normal in precision drug discovery and development. We previously demonstrated that AI can be used to discover novel targets and generate novel molecules that can be tested in humans in record time. Now, we are partnering with one of the leading scientific teams in the pharmaceutical industry to take this technology to the next level for the benefit of patients worldwide,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, in the press release.

Source: Fosun Pharma