Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis has teamed up with Generate:Biomedicines to discover and develop protein therapeutics across multiple disease areas, using AI-based technologies.
Generate:Biomedicines is a technology company backed by US venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering, and offers a unique generative AI (GenAI) platform, dubbed The Generate Platform.
The collaboration will combine The Generate Platform with Novartis’ expertise and capabilities in target biology, biologics development, and clinical development to create novel therapeutics.
Under the terms of the agreement, Generate will receive an upfront payment of $65m in cash, which includes $15m for the purchase of equity interest in Generate.
Generate is also eligible to receive more than $1bn in performance-based milestone payments, in addition to tiered royalties up to low double-digits.
Novartis biomedical research president Fiona Marshall said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Generate to explore the promise of generative AI in enhancing and accelerating the discovery of next-generation biologics.
“This collaboration offers an opportunity to leverage the unique strengths of our respective companies, from target biology and biologics discovery to machine learning/AI and clinical development, in order to bring forward new medicines with transformative potential for patients.”
Generate was established by Flagship Pioneering in 2018, as a clinical-stage company that combines machine learning, biological engineering, and medicine.
The company said it supports a shift from drug discovery to drug generation, advancing programmable biology to engineer better medicines for patients.
Its Generate Platform brings technology into biology to address historically undruggable and hard-to-drug targets, along with known targets in a new and effective way.
The platform helped generate a wide range of drugs across multiple therapeutic areas and protein-based modalities, addressing health challenges out of reach of traditional approaches.
Generate:Biomedicines CEO Mike Nally said: “Partnering with a world-leading drug discovery and development organization like Novartis allows us to broaden the use of our cutting-edge generative biology platform to tackle even more areas of unmet medical need.
“We look forward to working closely with the team at Novartis to continue to demonstrate the transformative potential of programming biology to create better medicines for patients, faster.”
