Gilead Strikes $35 Million Upfront Deal with AI Drug Discovery Firm Genesis Therapeutics to Develop Novel Small Molecule Therapies

On September 10 local time, Gilead Sciences announced in a press release that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with Genesis Therapeutics, an AI-driven drug discovery company, to discover and develop novel small molecule therapies across multiple targets.

According to the terms of the agreement, Gilead has agreed to pay Genesis Therapeutics an upfront payment of $35 million for the discovery efforts of AI-driven drugs targeting three undisclosed targets. In each program, Genesis is eligible to receive additional preclinical, development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments. If Gilead successfully commercializes products from the collaboration, Genesis is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on net sales.

Genesis Therapeutics was founded in 2019 as a biotechnology company focused on artificial intelligence, utilizing its generative and predictive AI platform, GEMS (Genesis Exploration of Molecular Space), for small molecule drug discovery.

Based on the GEMS platform, Genesis Therapeutics has developed the Dynamic PotentialNet machine learning model, which can be trained through molecular simulations and experimental data to learn the physical interactions behind molecular binding affinity, enabling accurate predictions based on the 3D structure of molecules.

In addition, the Dynamic PotentialNet model also integrates Genesis' unique molecular simulation technology, enabling the GEMS platform to learn 3D binding kinetics, including the effects of protein flexibility and key water molecules. Genesis creatively combines deep machine learning with molecular simulation, which can be widely applied to drug development for targets that currently lack data and are undruggable.

Genesis Therapeutics' AI platform GEMS not only gained recognition from Gilead Sciences and established a partnership with them, but prior to this, the company also formed collaborations with Genentech (acquired by Roche) and Eli Lilly based on this platform.

In 2020, Genesis Therapeutics and Genentech signed an agreement "to further co-develop an AI-driven drug discovery platform" to jointly optimize the GEMS platform. According to the terms of the agreement, Genentech made an upfront payment to Genesis Therapeutics, with other terms including milestone payments to Genesis Therapeutics during preclinical, clinical, and regulatory stages; however, the specific details were not disclosed to the public.

In 2022, Genesis Therapeutics and Eli Lilly entered into a strategic collaboration to leverage Genesis’ AI platform to discover novel therapies for up to five targets across a range of therapeutic areas. Under the terms of the agreement, Genesis will receive a $20 million upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to $670 million in preclinical, development, regulatory, and sales milestones payments. Lilly will have the option to nominate two additional targets, paying an additional nomination fee for each.

In addition, Genesis also announced in August 2023 that it had completed a $200 million Series B financing round. The round was led by a U.S.-based investment firm specializing in life sciences and Genesis' seed-round lead investor, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health, with participation from Fidelity International, Blackstone Group, and others.NVentures, the venture capital arm of chipmaking giant Nvidia.

In this collaboration, Gilead Sciences will work with Genesis Therapeutics to utilize the AI platform GEMS to generate and jointly optimize molecules targeting selected objectives. The two companies will closely collaborate on preclinical research activities, with Gilead retaining exclusive rights for the potential clinical development and commercialization of the collaborative compounds.

As for the other party in this cooperation, Gilead Sciences, it is undoubtedly a familiar name to everyone. Compared with other multinational pharmaceutical giants with long histories, Gilead was founded in 1987 by Michael L. Riordan and originally named OligoGen Inc. It was later renamed Gilead Sciences, implying "born to cure," which has since become the company's enduring vision. Initially, Gilead intended to focus on the small nucleic acid field; however, due to technical limitations, its research and development emphasis shifted to novel antiviral drugs, including those targeting HIV, HBV, and HCV.

Gilead Sciences has transformed from a startup Biotech to a Big Pharma and Fortune 500 company in just over three decades, becoming the "eliminator of hepatitis C" and poised to become the "eliminator of HIV."

In the field of hepatitis C, Gilead Sciences launched blockbuster drugs such as Sovaldi (sofosbuvir), Harvoni (sofosbuvir/ledipasvir), and Epclusa (sofosbuvir/velpatasvir), significantly improving the cure rate for hepatitis C. Among these, Sovaldi was Gilead’s first hepatitis C drug, approved by the U.S. FDA in 2013. With its astonishing efficacy and convenient treatment regimen, the drug quickly became the gold standard in hepatitis C treatment. Subsequently, the introduction of Harvoni and Epclusa further raised the cure rate for hepatitis C to nearly 100%. Gilead Sciences completely revolutionized the treatment landscape for hepatitis C.

After achieving great success in the field of hepatitis C, Gilead Sciences set its sights on another tough challenge — AIDS. On June 20 this year, Gilead announced: Top-line results from the interim analysis of the pivotal Phase III PURPOSE 1 clinical trial showed that Lenacapavir, administered twice a year, demonstrated 100% efficacy in preventing HIV infection in women. Following the announcement, Gilead's stock price surged 8.46% on the same day, with its total market value reaching nearly 90 billion US dollars. Many now anticipate that Gilead, after becoming known as the "hepatitis C terminator," could also become the "AIDS terminator."

In addition to its significant achievements in the fields of hepatitis C and HIV, Gilead Sciences has also been heavily investing in the AI drug discovery sector in recent years, albeit in a more low-key manner.

As early as 2016, Gilead Sciences reached a deal worth up to $1.2 billion with AI-driven pharmaceutical company Nimbus. Nimbus's core approach is to build a "structure-based" drug discovery engine for selecting targets and designing new molecules. The engine’s core integrates computational chemistry with other technologies to more effectively leverage high-resolution protein structure data for studying drug targets and modulating their functional activity. Under the agreement, Gilead obtained the rights to develop and commercialize Nimbus’s NASH candidate drug targeting acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) (designated as GS-0976 by Gilead) along with other ACC inhibitors in its pipeline.

In 2019, Gilead Sciences signed a three-year agreement worth up to $1.5 billion with Insitro, a rising star in AI. Under the agreement, the two parties will use Insitro's advanced technology to create NASH disease models and discover targets that influence disease progression or regression. Among the drug targets for NASH identified on this platform, Gilead has the right to select up to five and will be responsible for all subsequent chemistry and development.

In the era of rapid development of artificial intelligence and big data technologies, Gilead Sciences is actively exploring the application of AI technology in drug research and development as well as marketing. For instance, Gilead has developed a platform named DeepPurpose using artificial intelligence, which can predict the interactions between drugs and diseases more quickly and accurately, thereby accelerating drug development. It is expected that, with the help of AI technology, Gilead will soon reach the next milestone in the pharmaceutical industry.

References:
1. PharmaCube Pro, "NVIDIA's Favorite AI Drug Discovery Company | Genesis Therapeutics"

2. PharmaTimes, "The $6 Billion Drug Takeda Bought Was Actually Designed by AI?"

3. VCBeat, "$150 Million! Gilead Sciences Makes a Big Move! Teams Up with AI Star Company Insitro to Tackle NASH!"