CONVERGE Platform - AI for Rare Neurodegenerative Disease Target Discovery

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CONVERGE Platform - AI for Rare Neurodegenerative Disease Target Discovery

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Verge Genomics is adding AstraZeneca to its Big Pharma AI collection with a $42 million upfront deal to find new targets for rare neurodegenerative diseases. The four-year deal will see the AI-drug discovery biotech work with AstraZeneca's rare disease wing Alexion. Beyond the upfront fee, Verge will be eligible for $840 million in milestones plus royalties later on. At the same time, Alexion will take an equity position in Verge. AstraZeneca already has a presence in neurodegenerative diseases with candidates in development for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The new pact will reinvigorate the U.K.-based pharma's pipeline courtesy of Verge's high-tech AI- and machine-learning-enabled Converge drug discovery engine. The platform uses human tissue data sets combined with computational analysis to find drug targets that may have a higher chance of success. The collaboration, which is Verge's second with a leading global pharmaceutical company, will leverage CONVERGE, a full-stack platform that combines highly predictive human tissue datasets with machine learning to find new targets with a higher probability of clinical success. Instead of starting with cell or animal models, Verge's drug discovery platform is based on a proprietary library of genomic datasets derived directly from human tissue that is coupled with an advanced human-centered biology platform to rapidly advance new data insights into clinical candidates. This approach, validated through the successful advancement of Verge's lead program in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), will be used to identify novel therapeutic targets. "By leveraging Verge's AI-enabled platform in combination with data from patient tissue samples, we see potential in helping researchers more efficiently identify and validate therapeutic targets for rare diseases," said Seng H. Cheng, senior vice president, head of research and product development, Alexion. "Our collaboration with Alexion is a tremendous opportunity to leverage the combined power of CONVERGE's technology-enabled approach to drug discovery with Alexion's expertise in developing and commercializing rare disease treatments," said Jane Rhodes, Chief Business Officer, Verge Genomics. "We believe that our work with Alexion will build on our achievements in CNS drug discovery and is indicative of the sustained interest from pharma in the potential of AI to transform drug discovery and development." Verge has already taken one internal ALS program from discovery to the clinic. Other preclinical programs include Parkinson's, schizophrenia and frontotemporal dementia. With all those deals, Verge has $67 million in non-dilutive capital and the possibility to tap into $1.5 billion in milestones plus royalties as the programs progress.