Harbour BioMed and Insilico Medicine announced a strategic collaboration today aimed at accelerating the discovery and development of innovative therapeutic antibodies by combining their respective technological strengths in antibody discovery and artificial intelligence.
The partnership will integrate Harbour BioMed's industry-leading technology platform, proprietary dataset, and extensive expertise in antibody development with Insilico's advanced AI-driven drug discovery capabilities. Together, they aim to develop next-generation AI-powered antibody applications and collaborate on early-stage drug discovery programs targeting novel, specific antibodies for immunology, oncology, and neuroscience.
"We are excited to collaborate with Insilico, a pioneer and leading advocate in AI-driven drug discovery and development, to integrate AI technologies with our industry-leading technology platform and proven expertise in antibody discovery and development," said Jingsong Wang, MD, PhD, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Harbour BioMed. "By combining our validated Harbour Mice® platform with advanced generative AI approaches, we aim to further streamline antibody discovery, enhance candidate selection, and ultimately bring innovative therapies to patients more efficiently."
Complementary Technological Strengths
Harbour BioMed brings to the collaboration its proprietary Harbour Mice® platform, which enables the generation of fully human monoclonal antibodies in both conventional (H2L2) and heavy chain-only (HCAb) formats. The HCAb technology produces unique antibodies approximately half the size of conventional IgGs, offering significant advantages for next-generation antibody therapies. The company has applied its technology in more than 250 drug discovery programs across various therapeutic areas.
Insilico Medicine contributes its proven AI capabilities that have already demonstrated significant cost reduction and efficiency improvements in small molecule drug discovery. Since 2021, the company has established a wholly-owned pipeline of 30 assets powered by its Pharma.AI platform, with 10 receiving IND clearance. In July 2024, Insilico introduced Generative Biologics, an AI-powered tool for de novo protein engineering designed to accelerate the development of next-generation biologics.
"By combining advanced machine learning models with biological expertise, AI platforms are transforming antibody discovery and engineering - enabling the prediction of antibody structures, identification of binding sites, and design of candidates with enhanced specificity, efficacy, and safety," said Feng Ren, PhD, Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Insilico Medicine. "High-quality dataset and wet-lab validation are critical components in this process, and we are thrilled to collaborate with Harbour BioMed who excel in these areas."
Strategic Expansion for Harbour BioMed
This collaboration with Insilico Medicine comes shortly after Harbour BioMed announced a major global strategic partnership with AstraZeneca in March 2025. That agreement included a $105 million equity investment from AstraZeneca, representing a 9.15% stake in Harbour BioMed, and potential payments totaling up to $4.4 billion in development and commercial milestones.
The AstraZeneca collaboration focuses on discovering and developing next-generation multi-specific antibodies for immunology, oncology, and other therapeutic areas. Under that agreement, AstraZeneca obtained options to license two preclinical immunology programs and will nominate additional targets for Harbour BioMed to discover next-generation multi-specific antibodies.
Advancing AI-Driven Antibody Discovery
The collaboration between Harbour BioMed and Insilico Medicine represents a significant step forward in applying artificial intelligence to antibody discovery and development. Traditional antibody discovery methods can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, with high failure rates in later development stages.
By integrating AI technologies, the companies aim to predict antibody structures more accurately, identify optimal binding sites, and design candidates with enhanced specificity, efficacy, and safety profiles. This approach has the potential to significantly reduce development timelines and costs while increasing the probability of clinical success.
The partnership also highlights the growing trend of combining wet lab expertise with computational approaches in drug discovery. While AI can accelerate candidate identification and optimization, biological validation remains essential for advancing programs into clinical development.
Market Impact and Future Directions
For Harbour BioMed, this partnership with Insilico Medicine, combined with its recent AstraZeneca collaboration, positions the company as a leader in innovative antibody therapeutics development. The company's Harbour Mice® platform has already demonstrated its value through numerous partnerships and internal programs.
The collaboration also represents an important expansion for Insilico Medicine into the biologics space, building on its success in small molecule drug discovery. The company's Generative Biologics platform, launched in 2024, aims to apply the same AI-driven approaches that have proven successful for small molecules to the more complex world of protein therapeutics.
As the field of AI-driven drug discovery continues to evolve rapidly, partnerships that combine technological innovation with biological expertise will likely play an increasingly important role in addressing unmet medical needs across multiple therapeutic areas.
