Insilico Medicine and Fosun Pharma Announce Strategic Collaboration

Insilico Medicine and Fosun Pharma have announced an important strategic collaboration agreement. The partnership was announced yesterday at the 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The collaboration includes an upfront payment of $13 million plus an equity investment in Insilico Medicine of an undisclosed amount. The collaboration will combine Insilico's end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery platforms and Fosun Pharma's clinical development and commercial expertise to discover and develop a portfolio of novel therapeutics. 

In partnering with Fosun Pharma we begin a new era of human-machine collaboration in AI powered precision drug discovery. Together, Insilico Medicine and Fosun Pharma will take this technology to the next level for the benefit of patients worldwide.

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder and CEO, Insilico Medicine

This strategic collaboration includes an AI-driven drug discovery research and development collaboration on four biological targets, as well as the co-development of Insilico's QPCTL program. Insilico will receive an upfront payment of $13 million for the R&D collaboration projects and the co-development of the QPCTL program, potential milestone-based payments, and share commercialization profits from the QPCTL program.

As part of the collaboration, Fosun Pharma will secure access to Insilico's PandaOmics and Chemistry42 platforms in order to advance Fosun Pharma's internal AI-powered discovery and development efforts. 

Insilico will take responsibility for delivering a preclinical candidate for the QPCTL program and advancing it to IND stage. Fosun Pharma will then conduct human clinical studies and co-develop the candidate globally. In parallel, Fosun Pharma's R&D team will nominate four therapeutic targets to be assessed by Insilico's AI platform and R&D team, who are responsible of advancing drug candidates to IND stage. 

Insilico Medicine and Fosun disclosed the target they partnered on - QPCTL - a new target in the CD47 pathway. The companies achieved and announced the nomination of the AI-discovered and AI-designed preclinical candidate (PCC) in immuno-oncology.

We look forward to working with Insilico to leverage the technological and clinical development strengths of both companies, jointly improving the efficiency of innovative drug R&D, and benefiting more patients worldwide.

 Yifang Wu, Chairman and CEO, Fosun Pharma

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, founded in 1994, is a leading healthcare group covering pharmaceutical R&D, manufacturing, distribution, and retail, healthcare services, medical devices and diagnosis. The company focuses on major therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, the central nervous system, and the 4 hypers (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia and hyperuricemia) and their complications. Fosun Pharma has established international R&D platforms in the areas of innovative chemical drugs, biologics, high-value generic drugs, and cell-therapy. The company keeps close track of the most innovative cutting edge technologies including targeted protein degradation, RNA, oncolytic virus, and gene therapy.

Insilico Medicine is a pioneer and leader in the AI for drug discovery space. The company has raised over $310 million, published over 130 peer-reviewed papers, and has applied for over 30 patents. The company has built a strong drug discovery and drug development team, a broad distributed discovery partner network, and initiated multiple internal therapeutic programs. Leading biopharma companies are using Insilico's technologies to gain a head start in AI and accelerate their drug discovery programs. Insilico is collaborating with first-in-class biopharma companies, including Pfizer, Astellas, Johnson & Johnson, Taisho, and many others, with multiple partners reaching major milestones.

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Copyright © 2022 Margaretta Colangelo. All Rights Reserved.

This article was written by Margaretta Colangelo. Margaretta is Co-founder of Jthereum. She serves on the advisory board of the AI Precision Health Institute at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center. She's based in San Francisco 

Twitter @realmargaretta