Novo Nordisk and e-therapeutics Expand Collaboration to Advance AI-Driven Innovative Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes

Today, e-therapeutics plc announced an agreement with Novo Nordisk to expand their research and development collaboration in the field of type 2 diabetes. Previously, the two companies had been utilizing e-therapeutics’ Network-Driven Drug Discovery (NDD) platform to identify innovative biological mechanisms and therapeutic approaches for type 2 diabetes.

e-therapeutics plc is a biotechnology company that leverages network biology and in silico drug screening to accelerate drug discovery and development. Traditional drug development strategies focus on single targets; however, since diseases may arise from interactions among multiple genes or proteins, targeting a single entity, while affecting disease-related signaling pathway networks, is not necessarily the optimal therapeutic approach.

e-therapeutics plc leverages genomic data analysis to construct disease-specific signaling pathway networks. Through network analysis, researchers can identify synergistic targets, thereby enabling the development of combination therapies or multifunctional innovative drugs.

Image source: e-therapeutics plc official website

Leveraging insights from network biology, the company performs in silico screening of an AI-enhanced library comprising millions of compounds to identify small molecules with drug-like properties for subsequent phenotypic assays. This drug development model saves time and costs during the initial compound discovery phase and may yield candidate compounds that better align with the biology of human diseases.

▲ Schematic diagram of e-therapeutics' drug discovery process (Image source: e-therapeutics official website)

Under the latest agreement, e-therapeutics will utilize its proprietary Genome-Associated Interaction Network (GAINs) technology to analyze population genomics data from patients with type 2 diabetes. This marks the first research agreement reached for this innovative functional genomics technology by e-therapeutics. Novo Nordisk holds an option to acquire intellectual property rights arising from the collaboration.

References:

[1] Novo, e-therapeutics extend Type 2 diabetes research pact to include new genomics tech. Retrieved August 1, 2019, from https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/novo-e-therapeutics-extend-type-2-diabetes-research-pact-to-include-new-genomics-tech

[2] e-therapeutics. Retrieved August 1, 2019, from https://www.etherapeutics.co.uk/

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