SHANGHAI, Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Insilico Medicine ("Insilico"), an end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, and 4B Technologies Co., Ltd. ("4B Technologies"), a leading end-to-end innovative biopharmaceutical company focusing on nervous system diseases, signed a strategic collaboration agreement in advancing the development of innovative small molecule therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other major neurological diseases.
This strategic collaboration will enable Insilico's AI technology to be widely applied in various stages of R&D to speed up novel drug discovery by combining 4B Technologies' breakthrough science and cutting-edge platform technologies in CNS drug discovery and development. Both companies will work together closely in an effort to discover novel treatment for ALS through identifying high quality targets and therapeutic agents with an aim of improving the efficiency and probability of success to benefit patients worldwide.
ALS is a rapidly progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the five incurable diseases with no effective treatments to date and an average surviving duration of 3-5 years.
"4B Technologies is a leading neurological diseases company, co-founded by Dr. Bai Lu, a renowned neuroscientist and professor at Tsinghua University, and Dr. Xiaoming Guan, former vice president of neurological diseases R&D at GSK. Insilico is an industry leader in AI-driven drug discovery with a track record of accelerated drug discovery process. From target to preclinical candidates, Insilico successfully nominated two novel compounds for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and kidney fibrosis within 24 months. We have established collaborations with multiple leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Pfizer, Astellas, Merck, UCB, Janssen and Taisho. Now we are pleased to partner with 4B Technologies to address the unmet medical needs for the treatment of ALS. This collaboration will leverage Insilico's unique synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry AI platform and 4B Technologies' deep insights in targeting strategies, biology, translational research and clinical medicine in the field of neurological diseases to accelerate novel drug discovery for ALS," said Feng Ren, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Drug R&D at Insilico.
"Traditional drug R&D is a time-consuming and expensive process. It takes an average of 10 years and $2.6 billion for a novel drug to be developed. The application of AI technologies in drug discovery and development has made great progress in recent years and has the potential to transform the pharmaceutical industry by significantly shortening timelines and reducing cost. Neurodegenerative diseases including ALS pose great challenges in medical research and are one of our key focuses. 4B Technologies is establishing a broad ALS alliance with academia, hospitals, patient groups, and industrial partners. Our collaboration with Insilico will enable 4B to apply leading AI technology to expediate our R&D process, leverage strengths and synergy from both sides to develop breakthrough treatment of ALS," said Xiaoming Guan, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of 4B Technologies.
About Insilico Medicine
Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery company, is developing artificial intelligence platforms. These platforms use deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and age-related diseases.
Website: www.insilico.com
About 4B Technologies
4B Technologies was founded with its mission to focus on novel medicines for neurodegenerative diseases and neurological injuries. With deep insights in neurosciences and CNS drug discovery, we have developed a strategic framework to increase probability of success by tackling key challenges faced in CNS drug research and development, including targeting strategy, animal model development, basic-to-clinical translation, biomarkers, and clinical trial design. Through in-house drug discovery efforts as well as strategic alliance with academic and industrial partners, 4B Technologies has built and is advancing a pipeline of innovative medicines into the clinic to validate their therapeutic potentials. Our aspiration is to become a global leader in developing innovative medicines for neurological diseases.
Website: www.4btechnologies.com
Contact: pr@insilico.com
