Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage biotech and China Medical System Holdings (CMS) have announced AI-driven drug discovery collaborations across multiple projects targeting central nervous system and autoimmune diseases.
These partnerships will combine Insilico Medicine's proven AI platform and innovative drug discovery expertise with CMS's experienced R&D team and deep knowledge of disease areas to co-develop at least two R&D programmes.
Insilico is also set to receive R&D funding support of up to several tens of millions of HKD per programme.
The collaboration aims to harness the combined strengths of both companies throughout the drug development process—from discovery to commercialisation—by integrating resources and technologies to accelerate the research, development and translation of promising therapies.
Insilico will leverage its Pharma. AI platform for target discovery, small-molecule design and optimisation to facilitate efficient screening and validation of candidate compounds.
Meanwhile, CMS will bring its extensive experience in clinical strategy, regulatory planning, trial execution and commercialisation to advance projects from preclinical stages through clinical development and market launch.
This collaboration will fully leverage the complementary strengths of both parties across the entire value chain of drug discovery, clinical development and commercialisation.
This strong partnership is expected not only to bring innovative medicines into clinical development and to market more rapidly, but also to offer patients more innovative and accessible treatment options, ultimately improving health outcomes and quality of life.
Mr LAM Kong, CEO, Chair, President and Executive Director of CMS, said: "CMS has always been committed to addressing clinical needs through a dual-drive model of 'collaborative development and independent R&D.'"
"We continue to enrich our pipeline with global first-in-class (FIC) and best-in-class (BIC) innovative assets, efficiently advancing their clinical research, development and commercialisation to empower the continuous translation of scientific achievements into clinical practice."
"Insilico Medicine's leadership in AI drug discovery platforms and data-driven R&D is strategically complementary to CMS's capabilities in innovative R&D and clinical translation."
"In addition, CMS has built solid strengths in clinical development systems, regulatory submission expertise and a broad commercialisation network."
"We look forward to further deepening our collaboration on the existing foundation to accelerate the delivery of more clinically meaningful innovations to patients with greater speed and quality, improving the accessibility and affordability of medicines and better meeting the growing clinical needs."
"We are delighted to collaborate with China Medical System," added Dr Feng Ren, Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Insilico Medicine.
"This strategic collaboration with CMS is a key step for Insilico Medicine in advancing our mission of 'AI‑empowered, full‑lifecycle innovative drug R&D'."
"Under this collaboration framework, we look forward to leveraging resource sharing and joint decision‑making to significantly shorten the development cycle of high‑potential innovative drugs, enhance translational efficiency and clinical success rates and accelerate the journey of more innovative molecules from 'proof of concept' to truly 'benefiting patients'."
"Going forward, the two parties will continue to deepen multi‑dimensional collaboration in pipeline layout, clinical strategy and global partnerships, further improving the accessibility of innovative medicines."
Insilico leverages cutting-edge AI and automation to significantly enhance the efficiency of preclinical drug development, establishing a new standard in AI-driven R&D.
While traditional early-stage discovery averages around 4.5 years, Insilico has identified 20 preclinical candidates between 2021 and 2024, with each project taking roughly 12 to 18 months from start to PCC nomination and involving the synthesis and testing of only 60 to 200 molecules per programme.