Absci Corporation (Nasdaq: ABSI), a generative AI drug creation
company, today announced the ability to create and validate de novo
antibodies in silico (via a computer) with the use of zero-shot
generative AI — a major milestone for the biotechnology industry.
The ability to create de novo therapeutic antibodies in silico
could potentially reduce the time it takes to get new drug leads
into the clinic from as much as six years down to just 18-24 months
while also increasing their probability of success in the clinic.
This new advancement is a major industry step change, unlocking the
potential to deliver breakthrough therapeutics at the click of a
button, for every patient.
Historically, biologic drug discovery is risky, time-consuming,
and expensive, with a >90% failure rate. It takes an average of
10 years and >$1 billion to bring just one new drug to market,
limiting the scope and number of treatments that drugmakers can
pursue.
“It’s a slow, arduous process to bring just one safe, effective
drug to the market. I have overseen the development of over ten
drugs to approval throughout my career, and know the labor and
dedication required for the small chance of creating a therapeutic
that can improve lives,” said Andreas
Busch, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer of
Absci. “What Absci has accomplished is just one of the
reasons I joined the team. Being part of the mission to bring
potentially life-changing biologics to patients with the power of
generative AI is the next evolution in medicine. We’re seeing that
start today.”
Absci used zero-shot generative AI — a method that involves
designing antibodies to bind to specific targets without using any
training data of antibodies known to bind those specific targets.
Absci’s model produced antibody designs that were unlike those
found in existing antibody databases, and the zero-shot designs
worked in the lab right out of the computer — without the slow and
costly step of further optimizing the in silico designs in the
lab.
Absci’s breakthrough demonstrates generative AI as an
alternative to traditional biologic drug discovery, potentially
unlocking treatments for traditionally “undruggable” diseases and
improving therapeutic possibilities for many others.
Scalable biological data has been one of the biggest barriers to
applying generative AI to biologic drug discovery. Absci overcomes
this challenge with its proprietary high-throughput wet lab
technology, which today is capable of testing and validating nearly
3 million unique AI-generated designs each week — well above the
industry standards. This wet lab data is an invaluable component
for improving generative AI models and creating better antibody
designs. Absci can accomplish this design to data cycle in a
timeframe of weeks.
“Despite the technological breakthroughs of the last decade, the
process of drug discovery has remained relatively archaic. Our
success in creating brand new antibodies on a computer unlocks the
potential to create transformative therapies at a click of a button
for patients,” said Sean
McClain, founder and CEO of Absci.
“Generative AI used in conjunction with innovative synthetic
biology can now be harnessed to have real-world impacts for
patients.”
Absci further demonstrated its wet lab’s ability to
experimentally validate the superiority of de novo antibody
candidates to bind to the target antigen — all without lead
optimization of the in silico designs — in cycle times as little as
six weeks. Absci validated antibodies for HER2 and multiple
additional targets.
The achievement is also the first example of a generative AI
engine designing new therapeutic antibodies by designing the heavy
chain complementarity determining region 3 (HCDR3) from scratch,
where the computational design has been wet-lab validated to bind
to the intended targets. HCDR3 is a critical region for antibodies
to bind to their targets and enable their therapeutic
potential.
The bioRxiv preprint manuscript with technical details of the
achievement can be found here.
About AbsciAbsci is a generative AI drug
creation company that combines AI with scalable wet lab
technologies to create better biologics for patients, faster.
Our Integrated Drug Creation™ platform unlocks the potential to
accelerate time to clinic and increase the probability of success
by simultaneously optimizing multiple drug characteristics
important to both development and therapeutic benefit. With the
data to train, the AI to create, and the wet lab to validate, we
can screen billions of cells per week, allowing us to go from
AI-designed antibodies to wet lab-validated candidates in as little
as six weeks. Our vision is to deliver breakthrough therapeutics at
the click of a button, for everyone.
Absci’s headquarters is in Vancouver, WA, with our AI Research
Lab in New York City and an Innovation Center in Zug, Switzerland.
Visit www.absci.com and follow us on LinkedIn (@absci), Twitter
(@Abscibio), and YouTube.
Availability of Other Information about
AbsciInvestors and others should note that we routinely
communicate with investors and the public using our website
(www.absci.com) and our investor relations website
(investors.absci.com), including without limitation, through the
posting of investor presentations, SEC filings, press releases,
public conference calls and webcasts on these websites. The
information that we post on these websites could be deemed to be
material information. As a result, investors, the media, and others
interested in Absci are encouraged to review this information on a
regular basis. The contents of our website, or any other website
that may be accessed from our website, shall not be deemed
incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of
1933, as amended.
Absci Forward-Looking StatementsCertain
statements in this press release that are not historical facts are
considered forward-looking within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements
containing the words “will,” “pursues,” “anticipates,” “plans,”
“believes,” “forecast,” “estimates,” “extends,” “expects,” and
“intends,” or similar expressions. We intend these forward-looking
statements, including statements regarding our expectations
regarding business operations, financial performance and results of
operations, including our expectations and guidance regarding cash
and cash equivalents, short-term investments and restricted cash,
our projected cash usage, needs and runway, our expectations for
the count of new Active Programs, technology development efforts
and the application of those efforts, including acceleration of
drug development timelines, advancements toward in silico drug
design, drug discovery and development activities, internal
research and publication efforts, and research and technology
development collaboration efforts, to be covered by the safe harbor
provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A
of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange
Act, and we make this statement for purposes of complying with
those safe harbor provisions. These forward-looking statements
reflect our current views about our plans, intentions,
expectations, strategies, and prospects, which are based on the
information currently available to us and on assumptions we have
made. We can give no assurance that the plans, intentions,
expectations, or strategies will be attained or achieved, and,
furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those
described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by
a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control,
including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties relating to
our ability to effectively collaborate on research, drug discovery
and development activities with our partners or potential partners;
along with those risks set forth in our most recent periodic report
filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as
discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important
factors in our subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we assume no
obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events, or
otherwise.
Investor Contactinvestors@absci.com
Media Contactpress@absci.com
AbSci (NASDAQ:ABSI)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
AbSci (NASDAQ:ABSI)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024