Japanese pharmaceutical company Kyowa Hakko Kirin has entered into a strategic partnership with artificial intelligence firm InveniAI to harness machine learning technology for drug discovery and repurposing initiatives. The collaboration will utilize InveniAI's proprietary AlphaMeld platform to identify new therapeutic applications for drugs already in Kyowa Hakko Kirin's development pipeline.
AI-Driven Drug Repurposing Strategy
The partnership aims to maximize the value of Kyowa Hakko Kirin's research and development investments, which are concentrated in three key therapeutic areas: oncology, nephrology, and immunology and allergy. InveniAI's technology will analyze the Japanese pharmaceutical company's existing drug portfolio to uncover potential new indications that could expand each compound's therapeutic utility.
Kyowa Hakko Kirin's current pipeline includes several notable candidates across different therapeutic areas. The company is developing mogamulizumab for cancer treatment, istradefylline for Parkinson's disease, and entinostat for breast cancer applications.
Financial Terms and Expected Benefits
Under the agreement, InveniAI will receive an upfront payment along with development milestone payments and commercialization-based compensation, though specific financial details were not disclosed by either company.
Mitsuo Satoh, head of Kyowa Hakko Kirin's R&D division, emphasized the strategic importance of the collaboration: "As we seek to fulfill our business vision to bring innovative treatments to patients faster, we very much expect that InveniAI's platform will not only enable us to identify alternate therapeutic value for our portfolio at an unprecedented speed but also capitalize on our existing investment by reducing the time to market, clinical cost of development and enhancing the probability of clinical success."
Industry-Wide AI Adoption Trend
This partnership reflects a broader industry movement toward AI-powered drug discovery and development. Recent months have seen multiple pharmaceutical companies establishing similar collaborations with AI technology providers.
Novo Nordisk recently signed an agreement with UK biotech e-Therapeutics to leverage AI-based drug discovery technology for developing new type 2 diabetes therapies. German pharmaceutical giant Merck KGaA has also entered into a licensing agreement with Canadian AI company Cyclica to utilize artificial intelligence for identifying new drug targets and predicting potential side effects.
Additionally, Bayer is exploring AI applications for improving patient safety data monitoring, with the goal of detecting adverse effects earlier in the development process.
Addressing Pharmaceutical Development Challenges
The integration of AI technology addresses one of the pharmaceutical industry's most persistent challenges: the low success rate of drugs progressing from discovery through to market approval. By identifying new therapeutic applications for existing compounds, companies can potentially salvage investments in drugs that may have failed in their original intended indications.
This approach of drug repurposing using AI platforms has attracted interest from multiple pharmaceutical companies, including Teva and Astellas, which have established similar partnerships with AI firms to explore new applications for their existing drug portfolios.
