Angelini Pharma Partners with Quiver Bioscience in $120M Deal to Advance AI-Driven Therapies for Rare Genetic Epilepsies
核心洞察
Angelini Pharma (搜索) and Quiver Bioscience (搜索) have entered a multi-year collaboration to develop novel therapeutics for Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathies (搜索) (DEEs), rare genetic diseases affecting children worldwide.
The partnership combines Quiver's proprietary AI-driven Genomic Positioning System platform with Angelini's established expertise in brain health and epilepsy drug development.
Under the agreement, Quiver receives an undisclosed advance payment and is eligible for milestone payments up to $120 million plus royalties upon target identification.
Angelini Pharma (搜索) and Quiver Bioscience (搜索) announced a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement to advance novel therapeutics for genetic epilepsies (搜索), combining artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery with established pharmaceutical expertise. The multi-year partnership targets Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathies (搜索) (DEEs), a group of rare diseases affecting children worldwide that cause severe treatment-resistant seizures (搜索) and neurodevelopmental symptoms (搜索).
Under the agreement terms, Quiver will receive an undisclosed advance payment and support for defined research activities, along with additional licensing fees granting Angelini Pharma (搜索) exclusive access to collaboration-generated data during the research term. Quiver is eligible to receive milestone payments of up to $120 million and additional royalties upon Angelini's election of drug targets identified through the collaboration.
Addressing Critical Unmet Medical Need
DEEs represent a significant challenge in pediatric neurology, often caused by gene mutations whose functional and molecular consequences remain poorly understood in most cases. Despite the introduction of recently approved treatments for some DEEs, there remains a pressing unmet need for more effective therapies. These rare diseases cause a spectrum of neurodevelopmental symptoms (搜索) and severe treatment-resistant seizures (搜索) linked to genetic mutations (搜索).
"The prospects of our collaboration with Quiver Bioscience (搜索) are very promising," said Rafal Kaminski, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Angelini Pharma (搜索). "The aim is to generate novel scientific insights on a scale and richness that has been unprecedented in this area of research. By applying cutting-edge technologies and advanced data analytics approaches, including AI, this partnership will generate a unique data set to inform the development of novel therapies in the future."
Advanced Technology Platform Integration
The collaboration leverages Quiver Bioscience (搜索)'s proprietary Genomic Positioning System (GPS) platform, which represents the first-of-its-kind perturbation atlas of neuronal behavior (搜索). This advanced platform uses human neuronal models coupled with single-cell transcriptomic resolution, optical electrophysiology, and AI to accelerate the discovery of precision therapies for complex neurological conditions.
Quiver's empirical-in-a-loop approach integrates scalable human neuronal models, advanced single-cell optical electrophysiology and multi-omics techniques with machine learning and surrogate models to identify novel therapeutic targets and optimal candidate molecules. The platform enables precise target identification, functional validation, and safety assessment.
"We're excited to embark on this collaboration with the excellent team at Angelini Pharma (搜索)," said Graham T. Dempsey, PhD, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Quiver Bioscience (搜索). "Together we are pursuing a novel approach uniquely enabled by Quiver's technology platform. By leveraging altered electrophysiology in response to genetic perturbations as the core neuronal classifier and integrating paired multi-modal data, we aim to link functional phenotypes with the underlying molecular drivers."
Strategic Expansion in Brain Health
The partnership represents another step in Angelini Pharma (搜索)'s strategic expansion in brain health, building on the company's deep therapeutic expertise and drug development experience. Angelini Pharma operates directly in 20 countries, employing more than 3,000 people, with products marketed in over 70 countries through strategic alliances.
"This new partnership is another step forward to advance our strategic priorities, strengthen our global presence and potentially expand our pipeline of innovative medicines and promising candidates," said Sergio Marullo di Condojanni, Chief Executive Officer at Angelini Pharma (搜索). "It follows a number of strategic acquisitions and collaboration agreements that we have entered over the course of the past two years and will further boost our leadership and portfolio in brain health."
The ultimate goal of the partnership is to discover and develop differentiated therapeutics that can address multiple DEEs, potentially transforming treatment options for children affected by these rare genetic epilepsies (搜索). Destum Partners (搜索) acted as transaction advisor to Quiver Bioscience (搜索) in the deal.