PostEra Expands Pfizer Partnership with AI Lab and ADC Collaborations

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Almost three years to the day since announcing the establishment of its joint artificial intelligence (AI) laboratory, the biotechnology company PostEra said it is increasing its partnership with Pfizer to a total value of $610 million, primarily through the launch of a new antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) collaboration (1).

In a press release dated Jan. 7, 2025, PostEra said it will receive $12 million up front and may be eligible for additional, milestone payments, and also tiered royalties on any approved products that result from the collaboration (1).

The two parties plan to leverage PostEra’s AI platform, called Proton, in the advancement of a number of programs including small-molecule therapeutics as well as ADCs, for the latter of which Proton will be used to optimize payload properties, according to the release.

"We're pleased to significantly expand the use of PostEra's Proton platform,” Alpha Lee, PostEra chief scientific officer, said in the release. “This builds on peer-reviewed publications with Pfizer validating the real-world impact of AI-driven drug discovery in hitting preclinical milestones faster than anticipated."

The alliance between PostEra and Pfizer over the past three years has already advanced several small-molecule programs, and the AI Lab itself was built on a pre-existing Generative Chemistry partnership that dates back to the two companies first entering into strategic collaboration in December 2020 (2–4).

"This third partnership with our long-term collaborators at Pfizer underscores Proton's depth and strength in making a meaningful impact on real-world drug discovery campaigns," Aaron Morris, PostEra, said in the January 7 release.

PostEra’s last update on the AI Lab came in March 2024, when it said that one of the lab’s programs had achieved its first scientific stage gate 40% faster than predicted, a second program was making similar progress, and a third target was being nominated by Pfizer (2).

When first announced on Jan. 11, 2022, the value of the AI Lab was originally estimated by PostEra and Pfizer to be approximately $260 million (3).

“Working together, our teams have been able to rapidly apply PostEra’s novel AI technology to drug discovery efforts, which may in turn help accelerate the identification of potential medical breakthroughs for patients in need,” said Patrick Verhoest, head of medicine design at Pfizer, said in 2024 (2).

The initial focuses of the drug discovery programs prioritized by PostEra and Pfizer were oncology and COVID-19 antiviral therapeutics; in fact, as of 2022, PostEra was responsible for the largest open-science drug discovery effort in the world, “COVID Moonshot” (3).

As part of that December 2020 agreement, PostEra also retains ownership rights to all algorithms developed during its collaboration with Pfizer (4).

References

1. PostEra. PostEra Announces Expansion to $610M in Their AI Drug Discovery Collaboration with Pfizer. Press Release. Jan. 8, 2025.
2. PostEra. PostEra Provides Update on Progress of the Pfizer-Partnered AI Lab. Press Release. March 27, 2024.
3. PostEra. PostEra Announces $260M Multi-Target Strategic AI Lab Collaboration with Pfizer. Press Release. Jan. 11, 2022.
4. PostEra. PostEra Enters a Multi-Year Strategic Partnership with Pfizer Inc. to Advance Machine Learning for Drug Discovery. Press Release. Dec. 7, 2020.