AstraZeneca has signed a $555mn deal with a San Francisco-based biotech business that specialises in artificial intelligence — the latest pharmaceutical company to seek an AI partner for drug development. The agreement with Algen Biotechnologies gives AstraZeneca exclusive rights to develop and commercialise therapies from the gene-editing technology known as Crispr. Algen was spun out of the Berkeley lab where Jennifer Doudna developed the technology, for which she won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2020. Doudna is an adviser to Algen. Algen will receive up to $555mn for hitting regulatory and commercial milestones in collaboration with AstraZeneca, which is not taking an equity stake. It has previously raised $11mn and received a $350,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2021 for cancer research. While AI has the potential to speed up successful drug testing, there are few AI-discovered drugs in late-stage clinical trials, and not one has been approved. Meanwhile, the amount of cash flooding into all AI investments is seen by many as a bubble.

Full story : AstraZeneca signs $555 million AI deal to identify immunology targets.