By Jason Chau
Japanese pharmaceutical major Takeda is forging an AI drug-discovery partnership with biotech firm InSilico with a potential initial value of $600.0 million.
Under the partnership announced Thursday, Takeda will pay InSilico to use its proprietary Pharma.AI platform to advance drug candidates across several therapeutic areas. InSilico will lead drug discovery, while Takeda will further development, including advancing candidates past clinical trials.
Hong Kong-listed InSilico is set to receive an initial $60 million in project initiation fees and near-term payments, and is eligible for milestone payments as well as tiered royalties on future sales. Takeda will be granted exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize the new drugs.
The Wall Street Journal had reported on the deal earlier.
The move is part of Takeda's strategy to build an ecosystem of "best-in-class" AI collaborators, Chief Scientific Officer Christopher Arendt said. The Japanese company has been working with several AI biopharma labs over the past 10 months.
"AI is moving quickly, and no single company can build every capability alone," he said in a comment.
Multinational drugmakers have been lining up to tap the capabilities of fast-growing biopharma companies with research expertise and assets in China. Late last year, Takeda struck a cancer-drug licensing deal with Chinese biopharma firm Innovent Biologics for up to $11.4 billion.
A Takeda tie-up adds to a string of collaborations that InSilico has racked up this year, including a licensing deal with Eli Lilly worth up to $2.75 billion in March, as well as a similar AI-driven drug-discovery partnership with SK Biopharmaceuticals last week worth up to $2.5 billion.
InSilico is seeking to focus on longevity treatments and hopes to develop a "god-like drug" that can extend human lifespan, its chief executive officer, Alex Zhavoronkov, said in a recent interview with The Journal.
On Thursday, Zhavoronkov said that working with Takeda will boost InSilico's earnings visibility and help set it on a path to sustainable profitability.
That also aligns with InSilico's strategy to expand in Asia-Pacific, and can help show that its model can scale preclinical drug discovery for major drugmakers, he said in an emailed comment.
"We need to be able to scale in order to be [a] true AI drug discovery company," he added.
The AI drugmaker, based in Boston, manufactures drugs in China and develops its AI models in the United Arab Emirates and Canada.
Shares of Takeda were last trading 2.1% higher.
Write to Jason Chau at jason.chau@wsj.com