Bristol Myers Squibb has enlisted three-year-old Massachusetts biotech AI Proteins to use its artificial intelligence-driven platform to discover and develop therapeutic miniproteins for two undisclosed targets.
The deal is valued at up to $400 million, plus royalties on sales. AI Proteins, which uses computational protein design to create miniproteins from scratch, will collect an upfront payment, which was not disclosed. BMS has an option for an exclusive worldwide license to the two miniproteins and two additional target options, the companies said.
Miniproteins are characterized by their “small size and high affinity,” the companies added, giving them a potential advantage over traditional antibody therapies. Their improved tissue penetration and rapid clearance could allow for better efficacy and safety.
“Our platform combines AI, synthetic biology, and laboratory automation to rapidly design and optimize novel miniproteins with ideal drug-like properties,” Chris Bahl, Ph.D., president, chief scientific officer and founder of AI Proteins, said in a release. “By combining our expertise in protein engineering with Bristol Myers Squibb’s deep knowledge of pharmaceutical development, we aim to create a new generation of targeted therapies that can transform patient outcomes.”
It is the second collaboration announced by AI Proteins this year. In January, the company and another Boston-based biotech, Vivtex, revealed a partnership to develop oral biologic therapies for inflammatory diseases. Terms of that deal were not disclosed.
The BMS alliance comes less than a month after AI Proteins presented at the Falling Walls Venture Science Start-up competition in Berlin. Falling Walls selects 25 of the world’s most promising startups to present their technologies to a global audience of investors, industry leaders and policymakers.
“When you create a molecule or a protein from scratch, you have so much more control over the properties, the behaviors, the activity of these molecules than is possible to achieve by modifying a natural material,” Bahl said earlier this year at Bayer’s Boundary-Breaking Science Symposia. “It’s a major inflection point in technology and also allows us to create molecules that have way more sophistication in their mechanism of action.”
BMS has been among the pharma giants that have bought into AI for drug discovery. In 2021, the company struck a $1.2 billion deal, with $50 million upfront, with Exscientia to discover small-molecule drugs for a variety of diseases.