Oct 17, 2023

Oct. 12, 2023 Sanofi SA will pay $10 million up front and potentially $1 billion down the road to build artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery modules with Biomap – the Silicon Valley-based biotech led by Chinese billionaire, software engineer and serial entrepreneur Robin Li known for founding China’s largest internet search engine and AI platform, Baidu, in 2000. Along with the French pharma giant’s up-front $10 million payout, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based Biomap stands to gain over $1 billion for hitting prespecified but undisclosed preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, according to the Oct. 10 release. Specific target indications were also not disclosed. Under the terms, Biomap and the Paris-headquartered Sanofi aim to create advanced AI modules and large language models for protein drug discovery that will “enable biologics design and multiparametric optimization.” Biomap will chart points and problems related to protein-drug development and unite the available “labeled data” of proteins, which are “often in short supply,” into one foundational model that can inform multiple downstream task models. The goal, Biomap said, is to increase the accuracy of model predictions and thereby accelerate AI-based protein drug discovery across multiple areas like immunology, neurology, oncology and rare diseases. Robin Li, co-founder, Biomap The privately held Biomap, co-founded in 2020 by Li and CEO Wei Liu, has built a family of pre-trained large language models dubbed xTrimo, standing for Cross-Modal Transformer Representation of Interactome and Multi-Omics. The xTrimo platform utilizes Biomap’s datasets that encompass over 6 billion proteins and 100 billion protein-protein interactions. Along with Li’s experience and clout from Baidu, co-founder Liu also brings forth extensive experience as the previous CEO of the Beijing- and San Francsico-based Baidu Ventures, an early stage AI and tech investment fund. He also has experience as general partner at the Beijing-based AI biotech seed fund, Legend Star. With only three years under its belt, Biomap has raised $100 million in a series A funding round, led by Legend Capital in July 2021, to advance its R&D and drug development technologies. As of October 2023, Biomap had locations in Singapore, Beijing, and Suzhou, China along with its headquarters in the Silicon Valley area of California. Both Biomap and Sanofi hope to build AI modules that increase the prediction accuracy of the biologic and large-molecule drug discovery process, which has remained a difficult feat. “We have built what is essentially a biological map of proteins using data sets from public and private sources to inform our foundational models,” Le Song, Biomap’s chief technology officer, said in a statement. “Utilizing automation and integrated workflows to enhance the collection of high-quality data, we can catalyze the process of new hit discovery and lead optimization.” Wei Liu, co-founder and CEO, Biomap “As the largest foundational model-based approach within life sciences, we are thrilled to collaborate with Sanofi and leverage the potential of Biomap’s cutting-edge AI engine to help solve complex problems associated with new protein therapies to drive drug discovery,” Song said. Sanofi expects to combine its own data sets, digital infrastructure and drug development expertise with Biomap’s high-performance computing and AI capabilities, particularly its AI-Generate Proteins (AIGP) platform – the “perfect fit” for Sanofi’s antibody and nanobody research as the “first and largest” AI foundation model of its kind to enable scientists to extract “super predictions” from limited data for protein design, Biomap told BioWorld. The French pharma previously collaborated with Baidu in November 2021 to access its AI-based mRNA platform, called Linear Design, within Sanofi’s pipeline for an undisclosed amount. “Our collaboration with Biomap further underscores Sanofi’s commitment to becoming the first pharma company powered by artificial intelligence at scale,” Sanofi’s global head of research platform Matt Truppo said. Sanofi has continuously ramped up AI capabilities for drug discovery over the past decade. The latest deal with Biomap draws upon its impressive track record of AI collaborations in the space, including one worth $21.5 million up front and $1.2 billion in milestones with Hong Kong and New York-based Insilico Medicine Inc.; the extended collaboration deal of an undisclosed amount with Paris-based pharma Aqemia; a deal worth $20 million up front, with potential payments of up to $1 billion, with San Francisco-based Atomwise Inc.; a deal worth $100 million up front and $5.2 million in milestones, plus royalties, with the U.K.’s Exscientia plc; and the $180 million equity investment in the French-American AI and federated learning startup Owkin SAS. Sanofi is not the only player teaming up, however. Other pharma giants like Eli Lilly and Co., Astrazeneca plc and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) have also expanded their AI discovery scope with collaborative deals. In May 2023, Eli Lilly agreed to $250 million in up-front and milestone payments to Xtalpi Inc. for its AI capabilities and robotics platform to design and deliver drug candidates for an undisclosed target. Astrazeneca signed deals with Scorpion Therapeutics Inc. and Benevolentai Ltd. in January 2022, and BMS inked a potential $1.2 billion AI drug discovery deal with Exscientia in May 2021. Big pharma’s extensive partnerships in the AI space have acted as a buffer to the competition and an accelerator for drug discovery. Still, the arms race for AI-based drug discovery has continued at unprecedented speed, with the likes of Insilico and Lunit gradually progressing their assets to near commercialization, and big names in Big Tech like Microsoft Corp. partnering with the New York-based generative AI-backed cancer diagnostics and clinical AI biotech Paige in September 2023 to build what it claims to be the “largest image-based AI model” for cancer.