Absci and AstraZeneca Collaborate on AI-Driven Oncology Candidate

Communication between the manufacturing plant and retail stores. | Image Credit: © Cagkan - © Cagkan - stock.adobe.com

Absci, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) drug creation company, announced on Dec. 4, 2023 that it is collaborating with AstraZeneca to deliver an antibody to treat cancer that is designed with AI. AstraZeneca will use Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation platform to accelerate the discovery of potential cancer treatments. The agreement includes an upfront commitment, R&D funding and milestone payments, and royalties on product sales.

The Integrated Drug Creation platform uses generative AI and scalable wet-lab technologies to create proprietary data by measuring millions of protein–protein interactions, according to Absci. The data are used to train the AI models to validate antibodies using the de novo AI models. Drug discovery may be accelerated by data collection, AI-driven design, and wet-lab validation, and potentially optimize multiple drug attributes concurrently.

“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 and CEO, in a press release. “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,” said Puja Sapra, senior vice-president of Biologics Engineering & Oncology Targeted Delivery, AstraZeneca, in the release.

The Absci/AstraZeneca agreement follows the publication of Absci’s design and validation of de novo antibodies using the generative AI model, as well as previous collaborations with other organizations.

Source: Absci