Absci, Almirall enter drug discovery partnership

Almirall and Absci announced a drug discovery partnership aimed to develop and commercialize AI-designed therapeutics to fight chronic and debilitating dermatological diseases. The partnership combines Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation platform with Almirall’s dermatological expertise with the goal of delivering life-changing medicines to patients, marking another step forward in AI drug creation. The partnership represents Almirall’s first de novo AI drug collaboration, and it comes only months after Absci announced it could design and validate de novo therapeutic antibodies using its ‘zero-shot’ generative AI. Under the terms of the partnership, Absci will apply its de novo generative AI technology to create and commercialize therapeutic candidates for two dermatological targets. In addition to product royalties, Absci is eligible to receive up to approximately $650M in upfront fees, R&D, and post-approval milestone payments across the two programs if all milestones are successfully completed.