The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has signed a deal worth up to $247 million with the American AI company Abcyl to innovate an antibody for cancer treatment. The report states that the collaboration aims to harness Abcyl's AI techniques for large-scale protein analysis to find an effective treatment for tumors, which is a key focus for AstraZeneca. The specific type of cancer they plan to address was not mentioned.
Abcyl and AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The newspaper noted that the deal includes upfront payments to Abcyl, funding for research and development, significant milestone payments, and royalty fees on sales of any product. A report quoted Sean McLean, founder and CEO of Abcyl, saying that applying engineering principles to drug discovery has improved success rates and reduced development times. Abcyl employs generative AI techniques to innovate the best potential drugs based on target affinity, safety, manufacturability, and other constraints.
