By Anna Bratulic
Incyte is making a hefty bet on AI-based drug discovery, teaming up with biotech startup Genesis Therapeutics in a deal that could be worth a total of over US$900 million. The goal? To use Genesis’ AI platform to design new small-molecule drugs faster and more effectively.
“AI has the potential to redefine how we discover small-molecule medicines, and our team is at the forefront of this revolution,” Genesis CEO Evan Feinberg said in a release Thursday. The company’s GEMS platform combines proprietary AI technologies like language models, diffusion models and physical simulations to generate and refine molecules for diseases that have traditionally been tough to treat.
For related analysis on what we can expect from AI this year, see Spotlight On: ‘A year of balance’ — Realistic expectations for AI in 2025.
Two targets, possibly three
Under the agreement, Genesis will get US$30 million upfront, with the potential to earn up to US$295 million per drug target in milestones, plus tiered royalties on approved products. Initially, the partnership will focus on two drug targets chosen by Incyte, with the option to add a third for an additional fee.
Incyte isn’t new to AI. The company has been exploring its potential, launching “The Unseen Journey” in early 2024, a generative AI-powered initiative designed to visualise the impact of myeloproliferative neoplasm symptoms on patients. The company has also used machine learning to fine-tune dosing for an experimental BET inhibitor, INCB057643, which it is developing to treat myelofibrosis.
Meanwhile, Genesis has attracted other pharma partners, including Eli Lilly in 2022, as part of an alliance worth up to US$670 million. It linked up with Gilead Sciences last year to deploy GEMS against multiple hard-to-drug targets, pocketing US$35 million upfront, and also signed a deal with Roche in 2020 on AI-enabled drug discovery.
Genesis, a spinout from Stanford University, has so far raised over US$300 million from investors, including a US$52-million series A in 2020 and an oversubscribed US$200-million series B in 2023.
