Revolution Medicines has zeroed in on Iambic Therapeutics’ AI drug discovery platform, striking a multi-year technology and research collaboration that gives Iambic the chance to earn up to $25 million for its services.
San Diego-based Iambic will use Revolution Medicines’ collection of molecular libraries and structures to train custom versions of its NeuralPLexer protein-ligand structure prediction model and enable drug discovery across novel targets, the companies said in a July 9 press release.
The deal also allows Revolution’s use of Iambic’s PropANE model, which is a pre-trained graph neural network used across “dozens of drug properties for lead selection and optimization,” the companies added.
Both partners can access the models, with each retaining rights to a “limited number” of exclusive targets, according to the release.
“The capabilities of Iambic’s AI-driven discovery platform, partnered with our unique collection of proprietary data, present an opportunity to rapidly explore oncology targets known to be challenging to address through conventional drug discovery approaches," Revolution's CEO, Mark Goldsmith, M.D., Ph.D., said in the release.
The deal's value includes an upfront payment, plus expected near-term performance-based milestones and ongoing R&D reimbursements, according to the release.
Iambic’s discovery platforms integrate AI with physics principles and are designed to allow molecular models to “venture widely” across possible chemical structures. Revolution, meanwhile, focuses on RAS-addicted cancers and is working with a pipeline of RAS inhibitors meant to suppress variants of RAS proteins.
Last month, Revolution secured funding of up to $2 billion from Royalty Pharma in return for a chunk of the profits if its lead cancer candidate, daraxonrasib, makes it to market. The drug recently entered a second phase 3 in non-small cell lung cancer, with a late-stage study in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma still ongoing.