AstraZeneca, Absci sign a $247M partnership to advance AI-driven drug discovery to fight cancer

Generative AI antibody discovery company Absci Corporation and AstraZeneca are teaming up to deliver an AI-designed antibody against an oncology target. The collaboration combines Absci's Integrated Drug Creation platform with AstraZeneca's expertise in oncology with the goal of accelerating the discovery of a potential new cancer treatment candidate.

Absci will contribute its pioneering generative AI technology to deliver a therapeutic candidate antibody for a specified oncology target. The agreement includes an upfront commitment, R&D funding and milestone payments, in addition to royalties on product sales.

How does it work?

Absci's Integrated Drug Creation platform harnesses generative AI and a suite of scalable wet-lab technologies. The platform generates proprietary data by measuring millions of protein-protein interactions.

These data are used to train Absci's proprietary AI models and, in later iterations, to validate antibodies designed using the de novo AI models. The platform accelerates drug discovery by completing the cycle of data collection, AI-driven design, and wet-lab validation within an estimated six weeks.

It aims to enhance the likelihood of successful development outcomes for biologic drug candidates by optimizing multiple drug attributes concurrently and expanding the universe of drug targets to include those previously deemed "undruggable," such as GPCRs and ion channels.

On the record

"AstraZeneca is a leader in developing novel treatments in oncology, and we are excited to collaborate with them to design a therapeutic candidate antibody with the potential to improve the lives of cancer patients," said Sean McClain, Absci Founder & CEO. "This agreement advances Absci's goal of creating a new generation of life-changing and transformative therapeutics using its AI platform."

"This collaboration is an exciting opportunity to utilize Absci's de novo AI antibody creation platform to design a potential new antibody therapy in oncology," added Puja Sapra, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Biologics Engineering & Oncology Targeted Delivery, AstraZeneca.

The context

The new agreement comes on the heels of Absci's publication on the design and validation of de novo antibodies using Absci's state-of-the-art 'zero-shot' generative AI model and follows additional collaborations with leading biopharmaceutical, healthcare, and technology organizations.