Almirall and Absci have announced a drug discovery partnership aimed at developing and commercialising artificial intelligence (AI)-designed treatments for dermatological diseases, with the deal worth over $650m.

The collaboration will combine Almirall’s dermatological capabilities with Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation platform, which the generative AI company says “unlocks the potential to accelerate time to clinic and increase the probability of success by simultaneously optimising multiple drug characteristics important to both development and therapeutic benefit”.

Under the terms of the agreement, Absci will apply its de novo generative AI technology to create and commercialise therapeutic candidates for two dermatological targets.

In addition to product royalties, Absci is eligible to receive up to approximately $650m in upfront fees, research and development (R&D) and post-approval milestone payments across the two programmes if all milestones are successfully completed.

Dr Karl Ziegelbauer, Almirall’s executive vice president of R&D and chief scientific officer, said: "Almirall chose Absci because [its] de novo platform brings truly novel innovation in solving the industry’s most challenging targets facing high unmet medical need."

The collaboration represents Almirall’s first de novo AI drug collaboration and marks an expansion to Absci’s de novo AI drug creation portfolio into dermatology, the companies outlined.

Sean McClain, founder and chief executive officer of Absci, said: “Our partnership with Almirall marks an important leap forward for dermatologic drug development and is poised to transform the lives of millions managing skin conditions.

"We believe the collaboration will generate tremendous scientific and technical insights for using AI drug creation to treat chronic inflammatory diseases more broadly."

The partnership comes just a few months after Almirall said it had raised €200m in investment capital to boost its pipeline.

The Gallardo family, which holds a majority stake in the company, participated in the offering and raised its ownership to 60.14% of its share capital.

Almirall said at the time of the announcement that it intended to use the net proceeds of the capital increase to "retain financial flexibility and agility to actively pursue and swiftly execute inorganic growth opportunities, including bolt-on acquisitions and in-licensing opportunities, that are currently under analysis".

https://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/almirall_and_absci_announce_$650m_ai_drug_discovery_partnership_for_dermatological_diseases_1503809