Frontier IP (LON:FIPP) said an investee company specialising in artificial intelligence has signed a drug discovery deal with an American biotech.
Exscientia, in which Frontier holds a 3.25% stake, is teaming up with Rallybio to find small molecule treatments for rare diseases, of which there are 7-8,000 affecting up to 30mln people in the US and Europe.
Exscientia will deploy its AI drug discovery platform Centaur Chemist to design pre-clinical drug candidates for the joint venture.
"There is a huge potential for artificial intelligence to revolutionise and democratise rare disease drug discovery,” said chief executive, Andrew Hopkins.
“AI can fast track, simplify and lower the price of research and we are thrilled to be partnering with Rallybio to achieve this.
“The future of drug discovery in rare diseases is to be able to address the need for precision engineered drugs at scale and our collaboration with Rallybio is the first step in this direction.”
Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.