AstraZeneca strikes US$555m deal to commercialise AI-discovered immunology drugs

AstraZeneca

ASTRAZENECA has completed a deal worth up to US$555m to commercialise immunology therapies discovered by a California-based company using artificial intelligence (AI).

Under the deal, AstraZeneca (AZ) will have exclusive rights to commercialise drugs discovered by San-Francisco-based Algen Biotechnologies’ immunology programme. The deal includes an upfront sum along with milestone payments up to a maximum of US$555m. AZ is not taking an equity stake in Algen, the Financial Times reports.

Algen’s technology uses AI to analyse billions of RNA changes in disease-affected cells, enabling the identification of specific genes for therapeutic targeting. Researchers then develop therapies using CRISPR technology – a high-precision method that targets specific genes to reverse disease processes. The development of CRISPR earned the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to University of California, Berkeley researchers Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier. Doudna remains an adviser to Algen, which spun out of her Berkeley lab in 2018.

Algen is also working on precision oncology therapies, for which it has already developed drugs targeting advanced solid tumours to the preclinical stage. AZ has only partnered with Algen’s immunology programme.

Chun-Hao Huang, CEO and co-founder of Algen Biotechnologies, said: “We’re excited to collaborate with AstraZeneca to bring the power of our AI-driven functional genomics platform to decode complex chronic inflammatory conditions for drug discovery.

“Together with AstraZeneca’s deep expertise in translational science and clinical development, we aim to uncover new biological insights to accelerate the development of novel therapies alone or in combination to transform patient outcomes.”

Believing the hype

Algen Biotechnologies’ other co-founder and chief business officer Christine Du said the partnership with AZ “is part of a growing shift toward data-driven, biology-first approaches in drug discovery”. In 2023, Roche joined Nvidia to use AI for drug discovery, while AZ itself partnered with BenevolentAI in 2019 to develop treatments for lung and kidney diseases.

Nevertheless, Jim Weatherall, AstraZeneca’s chief data scientist for biopharmaceuticals R&D, told the Financial Times that the sector is currently experiencing a “period of hype” around AI. He cautioned that AI is “no magic bullet for drug development” and emphasised the importance of “carefully introducing AI as a tool” to manage expectations and avoid over-enthusiasm.