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Sofinnova Partners and NVIDIA Launch AI Infrastructure Partnership to Accelerate European Life Sciences Innovation

AIDrug DiscoveryPrecision Medicine
  • Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, has partnered with NVIDIA to provide GPU credits and high-performance AI infrastructure to its portfolio companies through NVIDIA DGX Cloud Lepton.
  • Four promising European digital medicine startups—BioCorteX, Bioptimus, Cure51, and Latent Labs—are among the first cohort to gain access to NVIDIA's computational resources, enabling faster biological data processing and model development.
  • Cure51 demonstrated the partnership's potential by achieving up to 17x faster genomic processing and more than 2x cost savings using NVIDIA's GPU-accelerated genomics toolkit compared to traditional CPU methods.
  • The collaboration aims to position Europe at the forefront of AI-driven drug discovery by providing startups with computational power comparable to Silicon Valley tech giants in the $100B+ life sciences market.

Bayer and Broad Institute Extend Cardiovascular Research Partnership Through 2030

Precision MedicineDrug Discovery
  • Bayer and the Broad Institute have extended their decade-long cardiovascular research collaboration by an additional five years, focusing on precision cardiology target identification and novel therapeutic approaches.
  • The partnership has already yielded clinical progress with Bayer's GIRK4 inhibitor entering Phase I trials in May 2025 for atrial fibrillation treatment.
  • Current research efforts target specific cardiovascular conditions including dilated cardiomyopathy, leveraging genomics expertise and human cardiomyocyte platforms for drug discovery.
  • The collaboration combines Broad Institute's genomics capabilities with Bayer's drug discovery experience to address significant unmet medical needs in cardiovascular diseases.

Solvonis Therapeutics Launches AI-Powered CNS Drug Discovery Platform for Depression and Addiction

AIDrug Discovery
  • Solvonis Therapeutics has initiated an artificial intelligence-supported drug discovery programme targeting its proprietary central nervous system compound library acquired through the Awakn Life Sciences acquisition.
  • The AI platform will focus on data-driven asset prioritisation and structure-activity relationship analysis to accelerate identification of development candidates for depression and stimulant use disorders.
  • Under Professor David Nutt's scientific leadership, the programme complements Solvonis' existing clinical pipeline, which includes Phase 3 trials for alcohol use disorder affecting over 80 million people across the UK, US, and EU4.
  • The initiative represents a strategic expansion into earlier-stage innovation while maintaining focus on high-burden neuropsychiatric conditions with significant unmet medical need.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical Partners with Salipro Biotech to Target Challenging Membrane Proteins for Drug Discovery

Drug DiscoveryOrphan Drug
  • Daewoong Pharmaceutical has entered into a strategic research collaboration with Swedish biotech Salipro Biotech to develop novel small molecule therapeutics targeting challenging membrane proteins.
  • The partnership provides Daewoong access to Salipro's proprietary platform technology that stabilizes membrane proteins in their native forms, addressing a major barrier in drug discovery.
  • This marks Salipro's first collaboration with a Korean company, following previous partnerships with major pharmaceutical firms including Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, and Sumitomo.
  • Membrane proteins account for over 60 percent of known drug targets but have been difficult to research due to their structural instability in laboratory conditions.

Antibiotic Ciprofloxacin Shows Novel ACE Inhibition Mechanism, Opening Path to Improved Hypertension Therapies

Drug Discovery
  • UK and South African researchers discovered that the antibiotic ciprofloxacin blocks the ACE enzyme through a novel allosteric mechanism, binding to a different site than traditional ACE inhibitors.
  • The discovery offers potential for developing next-generation ACE inhibitors with fewer side effects, addressing limitations of current medications that affect multiple bodily processes.
  • While ciprofloxacin itself binds too weakly for therapeutic use, it serves as a template for designing more targeted cardiovascular drugs with improved safety profiles.
  • The research team plans to screen chemical analogues of ciprofloxacin to optimize binding and specificity for this new class of inhibitors.

Nicoya Lifesciences Acquires Applied Photophysics to Create Integrated Biologics Characterization Platform

Drug Discovery
  • Nicoya Lifesciences has acquired UK-based Applied Photophysics, a 50-year-old provider of biophysical characterization instrumentation, to create a comprehensive biologics analysis platform.
  • The acquisition is expected to immediately double Nicoya's annual revenue, triple its customer base, and establish a foundation for 25% projected organic growth.
  • The combined platform integrates Surface Plasmon Resonance systems with Circular Dichroism, nanoDSF, and stopped-flow technologies to provide complete characterization of complex biologics from a single provider.
  • Applied Photophysics' UK headquarters will become Nicoya's European operational hub, significantly expanding the company's global reach and customer support capabilities.

Evogene Completes First-in-Class AI Foundation Model for Small Molecule Design with 90% Precision

AIDrug Discovery
  • Evogene Ltd. has completed its generative AI foundation model version 1.0 for small molecule design, developed in collaboration with Google Cloud, achieving approximately 90% precision compared to 29% in traditional GPT AI models.
  • The model addresses the core challenge of identifying novel small molecules that simultaneously meet multiple complex product criteria while being patentable, essential for both pharmaceutical and agriculture applications.
  • Built on a dataset of approximately 38 billion molecular structures and trained using Google Cloud's advanced AI infrastructure, the model expands ChemPass AI capabilities to generate truly novel molecular structures.
  • Development is already underway on version 2.0 with enhanced flexibility for multi-parameter optimization, incorporating customized parameters tailored to therapeutic contexts and specific agriculture requirements.

Silicogenix Partners with BioDuro to Accelerate AI-Driven Drug Discovery for Complex Diseases

AIDrug DiscoveryOncology
  • Silicogenix, a pioneer in AI-powered small molecule design technology, has formed a strategic partnership with global CRDMO BioDuro to streamline drug discovery for complex and rare diseases.
  • The collaboration combines SGX's proprietary polypharmacology frameworks with BioDuro's integrated drug discovery platform to reduce development costs and timelines from concept to preclinical stages.
  • SGX's technology enables access to the majority of the human proteome and supports novel therapeutic approaches including combination therapies with standard-of-care treatments.
  • The partnership aims to accelerate development of first-in-class oncology and immunology therapeutics that address significant unmet medical needs in complex disease areas.

RenaissThera Advances AI-Designed Oral Obesity Drug Targeting GIPR to Lead Optimization

AIDrug Discovery
  • RenaissThera achieved a major discovery milestone in developing oral small molecule drugs targeting the glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR) for obesity treatment.
  • The company's AI and machine learning platforms successfully designed and screened novel GIPR modulators that demonstrated in-vitro and in-vivo activity in mice.
  • These oral small molecules offer a more affordable and convenient alternative to existing peptide-based obesity therapies in a market projected to reach $38 billion by 2032.
  • RenaissThera is now advancing these "hits" to lead optimization and plans to push candidates toward IND-readiness next year.

Fable Therapeutics Appoints Former AstraZeneca Executive David J. Baker as Chief Scientific Officer

Drug Discovery
  • Fable Therapeutics, a discovery-stage biotech developing AI-powered protein therapeutics for metabolic diseases, has appointed David J. Baker, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer.
  • Dr. Baker brings extensive drug discovery experience from AstraZeneca, where he led metabolism bioscience programs from target selection through Phase 2b trials in diabetes, obesity, MASH and dyslipidemia.
  • The appointment comes at a pivotal time as Fable advances its machine learning-enabled protein design platform toward IND filing and first-in-human studies.
  • Fable recently secured $43.5 million in Series A funding to develop next-generation protein-based therapeutics for metabolic diseases affecting millions of patients worldwide.

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