Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has made its first significant move into the artificial intelligence-powered drug discovery sector with a $20 million investment in biotechnology company Absci. The strategic investment includes an agreement for Absci to utilize AMD's chips and software in its drug discovery operations, particularly for its generative AI-driven biologic drug design platform.
The Vancouver, Washington-based Absci has developed an innovative Integrated Drug Creation platform that combines proprietary wet-lab assays with machine learning capabilities. This platform generates billions of protein-protein interaction data points to train ML models, enabling the creation of novel designs for antibodies and other biologic drugs. The technology's efficiency is demonstrated by its ability to screen billions of cells weekly and progress from AI design to wet lab-validated candidates in approximately six weeks.
Strategic Partnership Details
Mark Papermaster, AMD's Chief Technology Officer, emphasized the alignment between the companies: "Absci's groundbreaking work in AI drug discovery is a perfect fit for AMD high-performance computing solutions and software, designed for the most demanding AI workloads."
The partnership aims to enhance complex biological modeling capabilities while reducing infrastructure costs and accelerating innovation cycles. Sean McClain, Absci's CEO, indicated that additional details about the collaboration would be revealed at the upcoming JPMorgan healthcare conference in San Francisco.
Industry Context and Existing Collaborations
AMD's entry follows the established presence of its competitor NVIDIA in the pharmaceutical sector. NVIDIA, which launched its BioNeMo platform for drug discovery in 2022, has maintained a healthcare practice for over a decade and recently formed a significant partnership with Genentech focused on the 'lab-in-a-loop' concept.
Absci has already demonstrated its technology's value through successful collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies. In its partnership with AstraZeneca, the company is working on discovering a novel antibody-based drug targeting an undisclosed cancer indication. The project focuses on leveraging AI to design candidates with enhanced properties, including improved target affinity, safety profiles, and manufacturing efficiency.
Technology Impact on Drug Development
The integration of AMD's high-performance computing capabilities with Absci's platform represents a significant advancement in the acceleration of drug discovery processes. This collaboration addresses the growing demand for innovative AI applications in pharmaceutical research and development, potentially reducing the time and cost associated with bringing new therapeutics to market.
The partnership underscores the increasing convergence of high-performance computing and biological research, suggesting a future where drug discovery becomes increasingly driven by computational power and artificial intelligence.
