Both companies have lengthened their collaboration to use CytoReason’s AI (artificial intelligence) technology for the discovery and development of Pfizer’s drug programs.
The new deal means Pfizer will put in $20M in equity as well as hold options of CytoReason for licensing their platform and disease models. Pfizer will also offer supplementary funding for CytoReason’s other projects.
With this expanded deal, the partnership is expected to grow up to $110 million over the upcoming five years.
Pfizer is a multinational biopharmaceutical corporation based out of Manhattan, New York, United States of America, and has been in business for over 150 years. Pfizer works to develop many life-saving medicines and vaccines, and gained positive trial results late last month for its RSV vaccine used to prevent serious illness. Pfizer has been looking to expand its presence through numerous collaborations and acquisitions. One example of that is when it invested heavily in the French pharma company Valneva after a successful stage III trial of their Lyme disease vaccine, back in June of this year.
CytoReason is an Israeli tech company that develops computational disease models. It gathers data from a lot of pharma companies and uses that data to create human disease simulations in great detail. These AI simulations can later be used by biotech and other pharma companies to identify new opportunities. It can help lower the costs, reduce the time of trials and improve the chances of getting new drugs approved. As result, the technology is used by up to half of the top ten pharmaceutical companies globally.
Over 3 years ago in January 2019, the original agreement was initiated through which Pfizer was to use CytoReason’s tech to develop immune system models that are cell-based. Since then, Pfizer has used the models from the company for improved knowledge and understanding of the immune system which would consequently help in the development of new drugs to be used for immune system ailments.
Co-founder and CEO of CytoReason, David Harel said, “We are thrilled to scale our collaboration as one of Pfizer’s trusted AI partners for accelerating drug development. This partnership is advancing a significant shift in the biotech industry and helping drive future R&D for pharmaceutical companies as they continue to use machine learning to develop treatments more efficiently.” He also thinks that converting intricate data into insights can enable scientists to grow their drug portfolios to a greater extent.
This agreement means more investment and more research towards the development of more disease models with better resolution and catering to more therapeutic areas.
Mikael Dolsten, the President and Chief Science Officer of Pfizer revealed that the company is pleased with the one step further taken in the collaboration of the two partnered companies and he looks forward to leveraging the innovative platform provided by CytoReason. He also said that the technology enables Pfizer to make time-efficient and cost-effective decisions by enabling it to make a deeper dive into ailments. It also allows Pfizer to improve their drug development for the patients.
