Japan's Astellas Pharma has tapped Boston computational discovery company AI Proteins in a drug discovery deal potentially worth $400 million.
AI Proteins crafts miniproteins with the aid of its computational design platform that the company said have demonstrated binding activity “beyond what's possible with traditional nature-derived biologics,” according to an Oct. 21 release. The concept behind the platform is to essentially flip the drug discovery script by creating built-for-purpose molecules from scratch rather than seeking biological solutions.
“Every biologic medicine on the market today is based on a molecule borrowed from nature that evolved to do something else,” AI Proteins CEO and founder Chris Bahl, Ph.D., said in the release. “Designing miniproteins de novo lets us work from the other direction, meaning we specify what a medicine needs to do, then build a molecule from scratch to do precisely that.”
AI Proteins will receive an undisclosed upfront fee from Astellas, with milestones bringing the deal's potential value to north of $400 million. Astellas will take responsibility for development, regulatory processing and commercialization of any assets resulting from the partnership.
Astellas' push into AI territory began last decade. The company started bringing the technology into its development processes in 2019, using its “human-in-the-loop” platform to operationalize data collection and research. Now folding AI Proteins' platform into the mix, Astellas hopes to expand its early-stage pipeline.
With the upcoming patent cliff for the blockbuster cancer drug Xtandi, which brought in $6 billion in sales last year, Astellas CEO Naoki Okamura told Fierce in January that the company would rather “invest in [the] much longer term” rather than plastering the cracks through traditional pharma business development.
The deal with AI Proteins demonstrates that investment thesis, fitting Astellas' agnostic approach to therapeutic areas and modalities.
“Our collaboration with AI Proteins reflects our strategic focus on strengthening our early-stage research pipeline through partnerships that provide access to novel biology, differentiated technologies and new therapeutic possibilities,” Morten Sogaard, senior vice president of Astellas Innovation Lab, said in the release.
“By combining AI Proteins' advanced de novo protein design capabilities with Astellas' expertise in translating scientific breakthroughs into innovative medicines, we aim to accelerate the discovery of high-quality therapeutic candidates that can help fuel long-term innovation and support our pipeline-led growth strategy,” Sogaard added.
Over the last couple of years, AI Proteins has racked up a few discovery-focused partnerships with a similar aim, including a $400 million deal with Bristol Myers Squibb at the end of 2024 and an R&D collaboration with oral biologic platform company Vivtex earlier that year. It has also explored radioligand therapies alongside the University of Missouri through a collaborative research agreement.
AI Proteins' most recent funding round was a series A worth $41.5 million in November 2025, following an initial seed round of $18.2 million back in 2022.
Where Big Pharma is placing its bets is one of the hot topics being discussed at Fierce Biotech's high-impact event in London next month. Find out more information and register by clicking on the banner below:
