Atomwise Partners with Hansoh Pharma to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery in Asia
Atomwise
Developer of Machine Learning Systems for Drug Research and Development
Hansoh Pharma
Pharmaceutical Research, Production, and Sales
Yiou Health, September 13 – According to foreign media reports, Atomwise, an AI-driven drug design company, announced that it has entered into a collaboration with Hansoh Pharma.The two parties will design and discover potential drug candidates targeting 11 undisclosed targets across multiple therapeutic areas.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Atomwise will receive undisclosed technology access fees, option exercise fees, royalties, and revenue from the sublicensing or sale of assets arising from the partnership; Hansoh Pharma will retain development and commercialization rights across all therapeutic areas and geographies.Based on the historical average revenue of small-molecule drugs, if all projects succeed, the total potential value of this collaboration could surpass that of a potential blockbuster drug, generating $1.5 billion in revenue for Atomwise.
Founded in 2012, Atomwise is a U.S.-based technology company dedicated to integrating drug discovery with artificial intelligence. Its core technological platform is AtomNet, a deep convolutional neural network. Reportedly, by autonomously analyzing vast amounts of data on drug targets and the structural features of small-molecule drugs, AtomNet can learn the patterns of interaction between small molecules and their targets. On this basis, it predicts the biological activity of small-molecule compounds, thereby accelerating the drug development process. In 2015, Atomwise announced that it had identified two existing drugs with potential efficacy against the Ebola virus within just one week.
The capital markets have shown considerable favor toward Atomwise. Citing data from Tianyancha, Atomwise completed multiple financing rounds ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of US dollars between 2013 and 2015.In March 2018, Atomwise disclosed a $45 million Series A financing round. In addition to a consortium of foreign institutional investors, Baidu and Tencent also participated as investors. In a sense, this may have paved the way for Atomwise’s current entry into the Chinese market.
From a business model perspective,Atomwise primarily provides drug candidate prediction services to pharmaceutical companies and research institutions, thereby achieving the commercialization of its technology.Since its inception, Atomwise has collaborated with renowned research institutions such as Stanford University and the Scripps Research Institute on 27 drug development projects, and has also engaged in collaborative projects with major pharmaceutical companies including Merck & Co. and Pfizer.
In fact,Slow R&D progress and high failure rates have long plagued the pharmaceutical industry.New drug development primarily comprises four stages: drug discovery, preclinical research, clinical research, and regulatory approval and market launch. According to statistics from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug development process involves screening 5,000–10,000 compounds, of which only 250 advance to the preclinical research stage, and merely five proceed to clinical research. Furthermore, a Deloitte analysis report indicates that the average time required for new drug development at present is approximately 14 years.
By leveraging big data and AI technologies to computationally simulate the drug development process, the risk of costly clinical trial failures can be significantly mitigated. Consequently, many innovative pharmaceutical companies have actively engaged in research collaborations in this area, creating new development opportunities for technology firms such as Atomwise.
It is worth noting that,The collaboration with Hansoh Pharma marks Atomwise’s first foray into the Asian market.Abraham Heifets, CEO of Atomwise, stated, “Asia holds immense potential in innovative drug discovery, and I am delighted that Hansoh Pharma has become our first partner in the region.”In terms of collaborative division of labor, Atomwise brings expertise in AI technology, medicinal chemistry, and protein structure, while Hansoh Pharma contributes its capabilities in R&D, manufacturing, and commercialization. Together, the two parties will work to increase the success rate of drug development and shorten the timelines for drug discovery and clinical development.
In June this year, Hansoh Pharma, founded in 1995, had its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, andRapidly Surging into the “HK$100 Billion Market Cap” Tier of Listed CompaniesIn terms of research directions, Hansoh Pharma focuses on six major therapeutic areas: central nervous system, oncology, anti-infectives, diabetes, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular diseases. The company currently has nearly 100 products in its pipeline, including six Class 1.1 innovative drug molecular entities that have entered Phase II clinical trials or later stages.
From this perspective,Selecting Hansoh Pharma as its first Chinese partner has, to some extent, raised the competitive bar for Atomwise.As the momentum of China’s biopharmaceutical industry shifts from “imitation to innovation,” more generic drug manufacturers will embark on the path of original research and development, bringing Atomwise significant market dividends. However, this does not mean that Atomwise will “win by doing nothing,” such asXtalPiThe rise of domestic AI drug discovery companies will be a challenge that it must face in tapping into the Chinese market.
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