Specialists in artificial intelligence for new drug design, Iktos announced a research partnership with Zealand Pharma to jointly develop predictive and generative artificial intelligence technologies for a peptide drug design.
The AI technology of Iktos is built around broad data-driven chemical structure generation technology and provides a new viewpoint into the process of drug discovery. This technology designs virtual novel molecules automatically, with all the successful drug molecule features. Only recently did Iktos diversify its Research & Development efforts into the AI technology development for therapeutics that are peptide-based. The company has also developed a state-of-the-art predictive and generative model to assist in the design of novel peptide therapeutics with preferred properties.
Iktos is a French start-up that specializes in the development of artificial intelligence solutions for new drug design and medicinal chemistry. It was founded in 2016 with the goal of developing a user-friendly and innovative platform for learning-based drug design. The company is headquartered in Paris, France. It is developing a ground-breaking solution based on deep learning generative models that use existing data to help design molecules that are optimized in silico to meet the success standards of a small molecule discovery project. The use of this technology facilitates key gains in productivity for upstream pharmaceutical R&D. The technology is offered by Iktos as professional services as well as a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform called Makya™. The company has another software in the works called Spaya™, which is a synthesis planning software built on Iktos’ propriety AI technology for retrosynthesis.
Zealand Pharma is a Danish biotechnology company founded in 1998 that is based in Søborg, Denmark. The company is dedicated to discovering, designing and developing new peptide-based drugs that are primarily focused on metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes. It is additionally looking to focus its efforts on drug candidates that could qualify for rare/orphan disease status. The company’s R&D is structured to support active collaborations between various functions as well as project teams at every stage of discovery and development which helps it make headway on promising opportunities and take advantage of its in-depth knowledge of product development and peptide design.
Zealand Pharma has a history of inventing and developing novel peptide-based drugs successfully. This success is attributed to extensive experience in the betterment of therapeutic characteristics of peptides. The company has a strong interest in including AI and machine learning-based approaches in its computational chemistry toolbox. It could be incredibly useful for the design of novel therapeutic peptides.
Iktos and Zealand Pharma agreement will enable Zealand Pharma to provide its expertise in peptide drug discovery, coupled with Iktos’ generative modeling technologies as well as its AI and machine learning expertise.
The CEO and President of Iktos, Yann Gaston-Mathé commented, “We are very pleased to join forces with Zealand Pharma and leverage their deep know-how in peptide therapeutics with our state-of-the-art existing technology assets to peptide drug discovery. We look forward to working with Zealand’s experienced R&D team to build leading/state of the art peptide generative and predictive modeling technology in the field of peptides – a new area for Iktos.”
