Integrated Drug Creation Platform with Almirall

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Integrated Drug Creation Platform with Almirall

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Absci, Almirall Expand Up-to-$650M Dermatology AI Collaboration Absci and Almirall have expanded their 21-month-old artificial intelligence (AI)-based collaboration to develop and commercialize AI-designed therapeutics for chronic and debilitating skin diseases, with the Barcelona, Spain-based drug developer selecting the second of two planned targets for development. The expansion of the collaboration follows the companies successfully generating AI-designed, functional antibody leads against their first target, which Absci and Almirall have not disclosed but have characterized as difficult to drug. The companies launched their collaboration in November 2023, with the aim of treating chronic and debilitating skin diseases by combining Almirall's dermatology expertise with Absci's Integrated Drug Creation platform. Integrated Drug Creation is a generative AI platform made to advance AI-designed and optimized development candidates in as little as 14 months—and potentially faster, as its data and AI models continue to progress. The platform integrates generative AI models with expertise in synthetic biology, wet-lab data generation, and experimental validation capabilities. "The progress in our collaboration is a testament that AI de novo drug design is a successful approach to unlock novel biology where traditional drug discovery approaches have failed," said Sean McClain, Absci's founder and CEO. "We're proud of this milestone and excited to deepen our collaboration with Almirall with the goal of bringing a new generation of AI-created therapeutics for dermatology patients." Almirall has agreed to pay Absci up to approximately $650 million consisting of an upfront payment, payments tied to achieving R&D and post-approval milestones, as well as royalties on product sales. Absci is applying its platform and wet lab capabilities to design and validate the candidates, whose preclinical and clinical development programs Almirall is leading.