iBio partners with AstralBio to develop obesity treatments using AI-driven platform
Published: 11:50 27 Mar 2024 EDT
iBio, an AI-driven drug developer, shares surged more than 120% after it announced it has entered into a collaboration agreement with private biotech firm AstralBio to discover, engineer and develop novel antibodies to treat obesity and other cardiometabolic conditions.
The company said the collaboration brings together its ability to create antibodies against hard-to-drug targets using its patented Generative AI and machine learning platform with AstralBio’s experience in biologics and drug development.
Under the agreement, iBio has granted an exclusive license for its AI-powered technology to identify and engineer four targets for the treatment of cardiometabolic disease. AstralBio can continue the pre-clinical development to advance these candidates to an Investigational New Drug (IND) application.
iBio will have the exclusive option to license three cardiometabolic targets from AstralBio and, upon exercise, will receive the rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize those targets.
The collaboration will initially focus on developing a novel lead program focused on targeting the growth factor beta (TGFb) superfamily for the treatment of muscle wasting and obesity, the company said.
“We are confident our AI-enabled technology is exceptionally well positioned to develop antibodies against challenging targets in the cardiometabolic space,” iBio CEO and chief scientific officer Martin Brenner commented.
“The future of treating millions of patients affected by obesity and cardiometabolic disease globally will rely on next-generation therapies aimed at enhancing both the efficacy and the tolerability profiles of current treatments.”
AstralBio CEO and co-founder Patrick Crutcher also expressed his excitement over the collaboration.
“Using machine learning tools in the discovery of biological drugs has the potential to shorten development timeframes and lower expenses while enhancing the likelihood of successful development,” Crutcher said.
“We look forward to working with iBio to mutually advance our goals to deliver meaningful precision therapies for patients efficiently.”
Shares of iBio had added 122.6% at $2.56 shortly before noon on Wednesday.
