Merck Bets $349M on AI-Driven Discovery of Two Novel Small Molecule Drug Candidates with Variational AI

September 23,Vancouver, Canada – Generative AI drug discovery company Variational AI announced a collaboration with MSD to apply Variational AI's Enki™ platform for the design and optimization of novel small-molecule candidates targeting two undisclosed targets.

According to the agreement, Variational AI will use a fine-tuned version of its Enki™ platform, which is trained on MSD's proprietary data, to targetMSDDesignated therapeutic target generation and optimization of small molecule candidates.MSDWill have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the合作化合物. Variational AI will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for milestones with a total potential deal value of up to $349 million.

Handol Kim, CEO of Variational AI, stated:"We are delighted to apply our proprietary machine learning algorithms toMSD"Extensive and valuable datasets to create unique, fine-tuned generative models with unprecedented capabilities and accuracy. This is a compelling framework that has the potential to significantly accelerate and redefine the unit economics of drug discovery."

MSDRobert M. Garbaccio, Ph.D., Vice President of Research Laboratories and Head of Discovery Chemistry, stated:"InMSDWe are working hard to leverage the potential of artificial intelligence to enhance the efficiency, speed, and quality of candidate pipelines early in the discovery continuum. We look forward to collaborating with Variational AI to apply their Enki™ platform to challenging therapeutic targets."

Variational AI's Enki™ platform is based on a foundational model trained on Variational AI's internal data, a curated version of all public data, and proprietary generative models designed to create and optimize small molecule leads based on partner target product profiles.

Variational AI is a venture-backed generative AI drug discovery company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Founded by machine learning researchers from MIT, Caltech, Google Research, Microsoft Research, and D-Wave Quantum, its proprietary Enki™ platform uses state-of-the-art generative artificial intelligence models to design novel, optimized small molecules, increasing the probability of success and thereby accelerating the discovery and development of transformative therapies.In the past yearVariational AICollaborated with Rakovina Therapeutics, ImmVue Therapeutic, Oncorross, and Life Chemicals.