AI Collaboration: PostEra and Amgen Team Up for Next-Gen Drug Discovery

In a significant leap forward for artificial intelligence in healthcare, PostEra, a trailblazer in AI-driven preclinical drug discovery, has announced a groundbreaking collaboration with biotech giant Amgen. This partnership aims to revolutionize the discovery of small molecule therapeutics, blending PostEra's innovative AI platform, Proton, with Amgen's extensive expertise in drug discovery.

The synergy will capitalize on Proton's unique capabilities in generative chemistry and synthesis-aware design. Proton has been lauded for its ability to navigate the complex landscape of small molecule drug discovery, a task traditionally marked by high complexity and considerable resource requirements. This collaboration sets the stage for advancing up to five small molecule programs, emphasizing the combined strengths of both organizations.

Under this partnership, Amgen will gain optional access to some of PostEra's key AI technologies for its in-house projects, contingent upon the progress of certain programs within the collaboration. The agreement is bolstered by upfront funding, milestone payments, and royalties on any approved products resulting from this joint effort.

Dr. Alpha Lee, CSO of PostEra, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, highlighting Amgen's deep-rooted expertise in tackling challenging therapeutic targets. Dr. Lee added,  

“The Proton platform has been validated repeatedly in its ability to significantly tackle even the most challenging small molecule drug discovery programs. We believe AI can significantly improve drug discovery but we're also aware of the hype around the technology. As such we've worked hard to prove the value of Proton on real discovery programs, with multiple partners, across multiple therapeutic areas.”

Founded in 2019, PostEra's machine learning technology is grounded in cutting-edge academic research by its founding scientists. The company has been at the forefront of addressing critical challenges in small molecule drug discovery, optimizing the design-make-test cycle of medicinal chemistry. PostEra's approach involves collaborating with biopharma partners and advancing its internal pipeline, boasting over $1 billion in AI partnerships. Notably, PostEra spearheaded the COVID Moonshot initiative, the world's largest open-science drug discovery effort.

This partnership marks a new era in AI's role in healthcare, promising to streamline the drug discovery process and potentially bring novel therapeutics to market more swiftly and efficiently.