AI-Driven Drug Discovery Sparks Investment Surge: Lilly, Novartis, Gan & Lee Announce Strategic Moves

　　【Pharmaceutical Network Industry Dynamics] Currently, AI technology is profoundly transforming the drug discovery model, mainly by shortening the drug discovery cycle, reducing R&D costs, and increasing success rates. As competition in the global pharmaceutical industry intensifies, AI-driven drug discovery has become a key strategy for large pharmaceutical companies to maintain their competitive edge, sparking a wave of AI pharmaceutical investments across the global pharmaceutical industry.
 

XtalPi recently announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ailux, an AI-driven innovator in biologics R&D, has reached a multi-target strategic collaboration and platform licensing agreement with Eli Lilly. The total value of the agreement could reach up to $345 million. This follows the $250 million AI small molecule drug collaboration between XtalPi and Eli Lilly in 2023, marking their renewed partnership. Eli Lilly will leverage Ailux's proprietary platform to accelerate the discovery and development of bispecific antibodies (bispecifics) across multiple therapeutic areas, while also utilizing its AI antibody R&D platform to expedite internal pipeline research.
 

It is reported that Ailux is a large-molecule drug R&D platform that XtalPi has prioritized since 2021, experiencing rapid development and commercial achievement in the past two years. Leveraging XtalPi’s integrated strengths in quantum physics, AI, and high-throughput wet-lab capabilities, Ailux has developed an end-to-end AI biologics R&D platform capable of designing antibody drugs with high-value potential for complex disease mechanisms.
 

Data shows that Eli Lilly and Company has conducted ten collaborations in the AI pharmaceuticals field within 2025, with investments exceeding 3 billion US dollars. Collaborators include top AI companies such as Nvidia, OpenAI, and Chinese enterprises like Insilico Medicine and XtalPi.
 

In addition, Gan&Lee Pharmaceuticals announced on December 9 that it had reached a research and development collaboration for AI-based peptide drugs targeting metabolic diseases and an AI technology platform licensing agreement with XtalPi. According to the agreement, Gan&Lee Pharmaceuticals will utilize XtalPi's proprietary AI peptide R&D platform, PepiX™, to focus on addressing unmet core therapeutic needs in the field of metabolic diseases and accelerate the discovery and development process of novel peptide-based innovative drugs. By leveraging its proprietary platform’s generative AI peptide design, optimization of modification strategies, drug-likeness prediction, and other technologies, the company aims to complete precise design, efficient screening, and performance optimization of candidate drugs, covering key stages from molecular construction to the identification of preclinical candidate compounds.
 

On December 9, reports revealed that Novartis will pay up to $1.7 billion to UK-based biotech company Relation Therapeutics Ltd. to help identify drug targets for allergic diseases. The collaboration aims to combine Novartis' expertise in immunodermatology with the UK company’s AI-driven drug discovery platform, which leverages patient data, including human tissue, to uncover the genetic basis of disease manifestations.
 

As AI technology continues to advance, AI is enabling drug development to achieve dual breakthroughs of "time compression" and "increased success rates." Notably, the U.S.-based biotechnology company Generate:Biomedicines recently announced that its first AI-designed antibody drug, GB-0895, has officially launched two Phase III clinical trials. This marks a critical turning point for AI-driven drug development, transitioning from concept validation to tangible product realization. According to available data, GB-0895 is an experimental long-acting monoclonal antibody engineered through artificial intelligence, targeting thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP). GB-0895 is designed with ultra-high TSLP binding affinity, an extended half-life, and high specificity. Remarkably, it took only four years for GB-0895 to progress to global Phase III trials, showcasing the immense potential of AI in drug development, including speed, precision, and success rates. Company representatives stated that advancing GB-0895 to the third stage represents a significant milestone for both Generate and the entire industry.
 

AI pharmaceuticals is no longer a conceptual exploration; it not only changes the speed and efficiency of drug research and development but also reshapes the competitive landscape of the global pharmaceutical industry — companies with core AI technologies are gaining control over the industry's discourse, while open collaboration has become the choice to accelerate innovation. As the computing power of AI deeply integrates with the intelligence of life sciences, humanity’s battle against diseases will enter a new era that is more efficient and precise. Data predicts that from 2024 to 2032, the AI healthcare market will grow at an annual rate of 43%, with the market size expected to reach 3.58 trillion yuan. Among this, drug discovery and medical imaging are the two fields with the broadest AI applications, together accounting for over 50% of the market share.
 

Disclaimer: Under no circumstances shall the information or opinions expressed in this article constitute investment advice to any person.