Novartis and Lilly Collaborate with Alphabet for AI Drug Discovery
Novartis Pharma (NYSE: NVS) and Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE: LLY) have entered into strategic research collaborations with Isomorphic Labs, a unit of Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG). Isomorphic Labs, uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help discover new drugs. Under the agreement, Isomorphic Labs will receive upfront cash and possible future milestone payments potentially totaling $3 billion.
Commenting on its partnership with Lilly, Demis Hassabis, CEO and founder of Isomorphic Labs, said, “We’re thrilled to embark on this partnership and apply our proprietary technology platform, the next generation of AlphaFold, and access to massive computing power to Lilly’s development programs. The focus we share on advancing groundbreaking drug design approaches and appreciation of state-of-the-art science makes this partnership particularly compelling.”
Highlights
Eli Lilly’s collaboration will involve working to discover small molecule therapeutics for multiple targets. Isomorphic will receive $45 million upfront, with up to $1.7 billion in milestone payments, followed by possible royalties.
Novartis’ agreement will focus on finding small molecule therapeutics vs. three targets, with $37.5 million in upfront payments to Isomorphic and up to $1.2 billion in milestone payments, plus possible royalties.
Fiona Marshall, President of Biomedical Research at Novartis, said, “Cutting-edge AI technologies such as AlphaFold hold the potential to transform how we discover new drugs and accelerate our ability to deliver life-changing medicines for patients. This collaboration harnesses our companies’ unique strengths, from AI and data science to medicinal chemistry and deep disease area expertise, to realize new possibilities in AI-driven drug discovery. We are thrilled to explore uncharted frontiers together with the Isomorphic team.”
About Novartis
Novartis is an innovative medicines company. Every day, we work to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives so that patients, healthcare professionals and societies are empowered in the face of serious disease. Our medicines reach more than 250 million people worldwide.
About Lilly
Lilly unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. We’ve been pioneering life-changing discoveries for nearly 150 years, and today our medicines help more than 51 million people across the globe. Harnessing the power of biotechnology, chemistry and genetic medicine, our scientists are urgently advancing new discoveries to solve some of the world’s most significant health challenges, redefining diabetes care, treating obesity and curtailing its most devastating long-term effects, advancing the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, providing solutions to some of the most debilitating immune system disorders, and transforming the most difficult-to-treat cancers into manageable diseases. With each step toward a healthier world, we’re motivated by one thing: making life better for millions more people. That includes delivering innovative clinical trials that reflect the diversity of our world and working to ensure our medicines are accessible and affordable.
About Isomorphic Labs
Isomorphic Labs is an autonomous subsidiary of Alphabet that was launched from Alphabet’s DeepMind in 2021 to build on the success of AlphaFold, the company’s groundbreaking work in protein folding. That work was heralded as the ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ by Science and ‘Method of the Year’ by Nature in 2021. Based in London and now with a second location in Lausanne, Switzerland, Isomorphic Labs was founded and is led by AI pioneer Demis Hassabis, who also co-founded and leads Google DeepMind. As pioneers in digital biology, the company’s mission is to use AI to accelerate drug discovery and ultimately find cures for some of humanity’s most devastating diseases. Using its AI-first approach to drug discovery and biology, the company’s ambition is to advance a new era of medical breakthroughs.
