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ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Divests Netherlands Operations for $12M to Focus on AI-Driven Drug Discovery Platform

AIDrug Discovery
  • ImmunoPrecise Antibodies sold its Netherlands subsidiary to AVS Bio for $12 million USD, generating $11.7 million in net proceeds to strengthen its balance sheet.
  • The divestiture allows IPA to concentrate resources on its AI-based LENSai™ platform, which uses HYFT® multi-omics technology to accelerate biologics discovery.
  • The strategic move reflects IPA's shift toward Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions that unify complex biological data for more efficient drug development processes.

Porosome Therapeutics Reports Breakthrough Alzheimer's Platform with FDA-Validated Organoid Studies and AI-Designed Therapeutics

AIDrug Discovery
  • Porosome Therapeutics announced key advancements in its first-in-class, disease-modifying neurological platform that targets the root causes of Alzheimer's disease rather than just symptom management.
  • The company demonstrated significant reduction of Tau protein levels, an FDA-approved biomarker, and rapid reversal of Alzheimer's pathology within two weeks using FDA-validated human brain organoid models.
  • Three distinct therapeutic classes have been identified including small molecules, biologics, and AI-designed decoy peptides that neutralize toxic beta amyloid peptides.
  • The company is actively exploring the FDA's accelerated approval pathway based on quantifiable, biomarker-driven improvements in their studies.

Merck's Ifinatamab Deruxtecan Receives FDA Breakthrough Designation for Small Cell Lung Cancer

AIDrug DiscoveryOncology
  • Merck and Daiichi Sankyo's ifinatamab deruxtecan received FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for extensive-stage small cell lung cancer patients who progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy.
  • The B7-H3 directed antibody-drug conjugate represents the first BTD for the collaboration and addresses significant unmet medical needs in SCLC, a disease with limited therapeutic options.
  • The designation follows positive Phase 2 IDeate-Lung01 trial data and accelerates regulatory pathways, potentially expediting approval timelines for this innovative cancer therapy.
  • Merck also announced a strategic AI partnership with Turbine to create virtual tumor models for hard-to-treat cancers, leveraging Simulated Cells™ technology to accelerate drug discovery.

Taconic and Cyagen Form Strategic Partnership to Expand Access to 16,000+ Genetically Engineered Mouse Models

AIDrug Discovery
  • Taconic Biosciences and Cyagen Biosciences announced a strategic partnership to provide preclinical researchers with streamlined access to Cyagen's library of over 16,000 genetically engineered mouse models.
  • Taconic will serve as the exclusive distributor of Cyagen's animal model library in North America and Europe, combining AI-generated models with world-class production services.
  • The collaboration expands Taconic's existing library from 4,500 to over 20,500 mouse models, including knockout, conditional knockout, and Cre-recombinase expressing models for disease research.
  • The partnership aims to accelerate drug discovery across multiple therapeutic areas including neurodegeneration, rare diseases, immuno-oncology, and metabolic disorders.

Brain-Inspired Supercomputer Deployed at Leipzig University to Accelerate AI-Driven Drug Discovery

AIDrug Discovery
  • SpiNNcloud has delivered the world's largest brain-inspired supercomputer system to Leipzig University in Germany, featuring 650,000 cores specifically designed for small-molecule drug discovery research.
  • The system can simulate up to 10.5 billion neurons and screen 20 billion molecules in less than an hour, representing a two-orders-of-magnitude speed improvement over traditional 1000 CPU core systems.
  • The supercomputer operates with 18 times greater energy efficiency than current GPU-based systems, utilizing a unique architecture with 10 million ARM-based processors and specialized neural network accelerators.
  • Leipzig University plans to use the system primarily for protein folding simulations to advance personalized medicine by identifying molecular interactions with patient profiles.

Absci Raises $50 Million to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery Platform and Internal Pipeline

AIDrug Discovery
  • Absci Corporation completed a $50 million public offering of 16.67 million shares at $3.00 per share to fund its AI-powered drug discovery programs and internal pipeline development.
  • The company's cash reserves increased to $134 million as of March 2025, extending its operational runway through 2027 while advancing preclinical candidates ABS-101 and ABS-201.
  • Absci's Integrated Drug Creation platform combines generative AI with synthetic biology and has secured partnerships with pharmaceutical giants including Merck and Moderna.
  • The AI-driven biologics market is projected to grow from $13.9 billion in 2024 to over $30 billion by 2030, positioning Absci in a rapidly expanding sector.

Gate Bioscience Partners with Lilly in $856 Million Deal to Develop Novel Molecular Gate Therapeutics

Drug Discovery
  • Gate Bioscience announced a collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly to discover and develop molecular gate therapeutics, a new class of small molecule drugs that eliminate disease-causing proteins at their source.
  • The partnership combines Gate's molecular gate drug discovery engine with Lilly's expertise in small molecule therapeutics to target difficult-to-drug proteins for diseases with high unmet medical need.
  • Under the agreement terms, Gate will receive an upfront payment, equity investment, milestone payments, and tiered royalties with a total deal value up to $856 million.
  • Gate's molecular gate technology works by recognizing and blocking specific proteins from crossing cellular channels, causing them to be degraded instead of secreted into the body.

Harvard AI Model PDGrapher Accelerates Drug Discovery by Predicting Cellular Disease Reversal

AIDrug Discovery
  • Harvard Medical School researchers developed PDGrapher, an AI model that identifies cellular changes to reverse disease states, offering a new approach to drug discovery beyond traditional single-target methods.
  • The graph neural network-based tool demonstrated superior performance in testing, ranking correct targets up to 35% higher than similar models while delivering results up to 25 times faster across 19 datasets from 11 cancer types.
  • PDGrapher successfully identified known drug targets including KDR (VEGFR2) for non-small cell lung cancer and TOP2A for tumor spread, confirming its clinical relevance and potential for personalized treatment design.

IGC Pharma Unveils AI-Powered Alzheimer's Platforms at AAIC 2025

AIDrug Discovery
  • IGC Pharma will present three scientific posters at the 2025 Alzheimer's Association International Conference showcasing proprietary AI platforms for drug discovery and early disease detection.
  • The company's MINT-AD platform uses large language models to predict cognitive decline scores using only socioeconomic data, eliminating the need for brain scans or blood biomarkers.
  • IGC's hybrid AI-powered screening pipeline rapidly identifies interactions between proprietary molecules and Alzheimer's targets including GLP-1 and CB1 receptors.
  • The innovations aim to expand access to earlier diagnosis and accelerate therapeutic discovery, particularly in low-resource settings.

Answer ALS Launches AI-Powered Drug Discovery Initiative to Accelerate ALS Treatment Development

AIDrug Discovery
  • Answer ALS has launched LADDIA, a groundbreaking AI-powered drug discovery collaboration with GATC Health, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Tulane University to accelerate ALS treatment development.
  • The initiative leverages the world's largest open-access ALS dataset through the Neuromine Data Portal and GATC Health's proprietary AI platform to identify druggable therapeutic targets.
  • Currently, there are no known viable treatments for ALS, making this AI-driven approach critical for identifying new therapeutic pathways for the neurodegenerative disease.
  • The collaboration will roll out in two phases, focusing first on building infrastructure and then activating collaborative projects to generate high-impact scientific outputs.

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