(Courtesy of 1ST Biotherapeutics)
Eli Lilly has added Korean biotech 1ST Biotherapeutics to its TuneLab AI drug discovery platform, giving the company access to models trained on the U.S. drugmaker’s research data.
1STBIO said Thursday it had signed an agreement to use TuneLab for early-stage small-molecule drug research, including finding starting compounds, improving them and predicting possible safety or absorption problems.
The platform will be used in 1STBIO’s early programs in neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The company did not identify the targets.
The agreement gives 1STBIO access to Lilly’s AI models but does not transfer rights to its drug candidates, the company said.
A 1STBIO spokesperson told Korea Biomedical Review that the company’s research data, results and intellectual property will remain with 1STBIO and will not be shared with other TuneLab users or with Lilly through the system.
Lilly did not immediately respond to questions about TuneLab’s participant list, its data-use structure or whether 1STBIO is the platform’s first Korean user.
Lilly launched TuneLab last year as part of a push to give smaller biotech companies access to AI and machine-learning models built from its internal drug discovery work.
The company said the platform’s first model release was trained on proprietary data generated through more than $1 billion in research investment, including safety, drug-disposition and preclinical data from hundreds of thousands of molecules.
TuneLab uses a system known as federated learning, which is designed to let companies use AI models without directly exposing their own proprietary data.
For smaller biotechs, the pitch is access to tools built from big-pharma discovery data without giving up control of their own research programs.
For 1STBIO, the deal adds an outside AI platform to a discovery operation it has been building since its founding in 2016.
The Yongin-based company said it has developed AI-ready ADMET datasets for small-molecule research. ADMET refers to how a drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolized and cleared from the body, and whether it may raise toxicity concerns.
1STBIO’s lead program is FB849, an HPK1 inhibitor in global phase 1 development for solid tumors.
The company raised 31.7 billion won ($21.8 million) in Series D funding in January to support its clinical program, follow-on pipeline and initial public offering preparations.
Kim Ji-hye
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