AstraZeneca will pay insitro $40 million upfront to use artificial intelligence to identify new therapeutic targets for liver and heart conditions. The agreement could deliver an additional $1.46 billion to insitro through development and commercial achievements.
The collaboration will leverage insitro’s AI platform, which combines human and cellular datasets with computational analysis to identify biological mechanisms that directly contribute to disease. AstraZeneca has selected metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and cardiomyopathies as the initial areas of focus.
insitro CEO Daphne Koller said both conditions are common but frequently go undiagnosed, and that detailed biological datasets could reveal previously unrecognized drivers of disease. She explained that applying AI to this complex information could improve discovery efforts and uncover new genetic insights.
AstraZeneca will receive exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize selected programs emerging from the partnership. Koller said combining insitro’s discovery technology with AstraZeneca’s expertise in clinical development and regulatory processes could help move promising candidates forward more efficiently.
The agreement adds to AstraZeneca’s expanding investment in AI-driven drug discovery. Alongside building its internal capabilities, the pharmaceutical company has struck a deal with Algen Biotechnologies to identify immunology targets, acquired Modella AI and entered into an agentic AI licensing arrangement with Owkin.
AstraZeneca is also the latest major drugmaker to adopt insitro’s technology. Gilead Sciences established a partnership with the biotech in 2019, followed by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020. BMS has subsequently extended and broadened its collaboration over the past few years.
Eli Lilly joined insitro’s list of pharmaceutical partners in 2024. That relationship later contributed to the launch of an AI platform in 2025 that was made available to selected biotechnology companies for drug development.
Although these collaborations offer substantial potential milestone payments, much of the financial value depends on programs reaching future development and commercial targets. The agreements have nevertheless helped provide insitro with funding as it advances its own research portfolio.
The company raised $400 million in 2021 and has since developed an early-stage pipeline spanning obesity, liver fat accumulation and fibrosis, neurological conditions and ophthalmology. The AstraZeneca partnership adds further support for its strategy of combining machine learning with biological research to identify new drug targets.
This comes as positive news for Astrazeneca after the firm’s investigational enzyme replacement therapy, efzimfotase alfa, previously failed to show a statistically significant advantage over placebo in a late-stage trial involving patients with hypophosphatasia (HPP), a rare metabolic disorder that affects bones and muscles.
The setback emerged from the Phase 3 HICKORY study conducted by AstraZeneca’s rare disease subsidiary, Alexion Pharmaceuticals. The trial compared efzimfotase alfa with placebo in adolescents and adults with HPP who had not previously received Strensiq, Alexion’s approved enzyme replacement treatment.
After 25 weeks of therapy, participants receiving efzimfotase alfa improved their performance on the six-minute walk test by over 17 meters from baseline. However, the placebo group also recorded improvements that exceeded expectations, leaving the investigational treatment unable to demonstrate a significant benefit over placebo on the study’s primary endpoint.
Insitro Partners With AstraZeneca to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery
Insitro, an artificial intelligence-driven biotechnology company, announced a strategic drug discovery and licensing agreement with AstraZeneca on October 15, 2026. The collaboration is valued at up to approximately $1.5 billion and will focus on identifying new therapeutic targets and developing potential treatments for difficult-to-treat cardiometabolic diseases.
The partnership brings together Insitro’s expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and human biology with AstraZeneca’s pharmaceutical research, clinical development, and regulatory capabilities. The companies aim to better understand the biological mechanisms driving complex diseases and use those insights to discover innovative medicines.
For Insitro, the agreement represents a significant opportunity to apply its technology to new drug discovery programs. For AstraZeneca, the collaboration supports its strategy of using advanced AI systems to identify promising drug targets and strengthen its research pipeline.
