insitro, Bristol Myers extend ALS research collaboration

insitro and Bristol Myers (BMY) Squibb announced the next phase of their collaboration to discover new molecules with potential as new treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The collaboration extension will leverage insitro’s AI-enabled ChemML platform to design new medicines for a novel ALS target that was identified in the first biological evaluation phase and may provide up to $20M in new funding for the one-year extension. The successful delivery of a new therapeutic from the collaboration could have an aggregate value of more than $2B in discovery, development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments to insitro in addition to royalty payments. “Our collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb has uncovered novel targets with potential to address the underlying biology of ALS,” said Daphne Koller, Ph.D., founder and CEO of insitro. “We are now moving into the next phase – turning these discoveries into medicines. With ChemML, our end-to-end drug design platform, we can translate novel targets into advanced small-molecule leads rapidly, leveraging a differentiated set of capabilities that spans AI-driven modeling, medicinal chemistry, and structural biology. While advancing these initial drug candidates, we will continue our efforts to identify additional new targets that have the potential to be disease-modifying. Our aim remains unwavering: to deliver truly transformative treatments that enable people with ALS to live longer.”