AstraZeneca and insitro agree AI drug-target deal for liver and heart disease

insitro/ML-driven target discovery

AstraZeneca and insitro signed a drug-discovery and licensing collaboration to find new targets for MASH, a severe liver disease, and for cardiomyopathies, diseases with few effective therapies. insitro will use its Virtual Human platform to identify the causal biology of both and move AstraZeneca-nominated targets to development candidates. AstraZeneca then runs and funds the clinical trials.

• insitro receives a $40 million upfront payment.
• insitro is eligible for up to approximately $1.46 billion in development and commercial milestones, plus potential single-digit royalties on global commercial sales.
• AstraZeneca gets exclusive worldwide rights to advance selected programs identified in the collaboration, not every program it produces.
• The milestone and royalty figures are described as potential and contingent; the announcement gives no timeline for them.
• The platform combines large-scale human and cellular data with AI-enabled target identification and medicine design, according to the announcement; AstraZeneca contributes clinical development and regulatory expertise.