Expansion of existing collaboration will leverage InveniAI^® technology to identify, evaluate, and optimize novel targets for Kyowa Kirin’s antibody technology

Kyowa Kirin will select multiple programs to advance into clinical development

InveniAI^® is eligible to receive an upfront payment, development and commercial milestones, and royalties

GUILFORD, Connecticut, and TOKYO, Japan, December 9, 2020, InveniAI^® LLC, a global leader in pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development, and Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. (Kyowa Kirin, TSE:4151), a global specialty pharmaceutical company creating innovative medical solutions utilizing the latest biotechnology, are pleased to announce they have expanded their collaboration agreement to harness the power of InveniAI’s AI-platform, AlphaMeld^®, for novel target discovery.

InveniAI and Kyowa Kirin have been collaborating since 2018, to maximize Kyowa Kirin’s portfolio value through the re-innovation of an existing therapeutic pipeline into new disease indications utilizing AlphaMeld^®. Through this expansion, Kyowa Kirin will leverage AlphaMeld^® for novel target discovery and validation to generate a clinical pipeline of therapeutic antibodies that address the enduring unmet needs of patients across multiple diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, Kyowa Kirin will select multiple programs to advance into clinical development.

“As we work towards our mission to contribute to human health and well-being worldwide through state-of-the-art therapeutic modalities, we are excited to advance the next generation of antibody technology which offers numerous advantages over traditional monoclonal antibodies,” said Yoshifumi Torii, Ph.D., Executive Officer, Vice President, Head of R&D Division of Kyowa Kirin. “We are thrilled to partner with InveniAI to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to comprehensively identify viable connections between novel targets and diseases at unprecedented scale and speed. The expansion of the agreement will allow us to prioritize and advance our programs into clinical development with the highest probability of success while minimizing time and cost.”

“After a successful initial collaboration, our expanded partnership with Kyowa Kirin evidences the continued success of our AI-powered technology to drive the discovery and development of meaningful therapeutics across multiple modalities such as antibody, small molecule, RNAi, and gene therapy,” said Krishnan Nandabalan, Ph.D., President and CEO, InveniAI LLC. “Numerous programs to emerge from the platform in various stages of clinical development are a testament to the veracity and validation of the platform. In fact, one of the earliest programs, BXCL501, developed by our sister company, has recently completed a Phase III readout making this the first AI-powered platform to accomplish this feat,” he added.

Under the terms of the collaboration, InveniAI will receive an upfront payment, development and commercial milestones, and royalties.

About Kyowa Kirin
Kyowa Kirin commits to innovative drug discovery driven by state-of-the-art technologies. The company focuses on creating new values in the four therapeutic areas: nephrology, oncology, immunology/allergy, and neurology. Under the Kyowa Kirin brand, the employees from 40 group companies across North America, EMEA, and Asia/Oceania unite to champion the interests of patients and their caregivers in discovering solutions wherever there are unmet medical needs. You may learn more about the business of Kyowa Kirin at: https://www.kyowakirin.com.

About AlphaMeld^®
AlphaMeld^® is an AI-based platform powered by machine learning algorithms. The platform accelerates innovation by identifying alpha signals for targets, drugs, and healthcare products and technologies. Primed with data sets that have been cleaned, curated, and connected for over a decade, the platform generates testable hypotheses based on an ideal mode of pharmacotherapy (antibody, protein replacement, siRNA, mRNA, small molecule, cell and gene therapy, and gene-editing modalities), disease severity, gene ontology, disease pathways, proteinopathies, standard of care, emerging innovation, and enabling technologies while factoring in medical, scientific, strategic, and commercial considerations. AlphaMeld^® operates in real-time and in a rapidly changing and diverse data environment.

About InveniAI^®
InveniAI^® LLC, based in Guilford, Conn., is a global leader pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development by identifying and accelerating transformative therapies for diseases with unmet medical needs. The company leverages AI and ML to harness petabytes of disparate data sets to recognize and unlock value for AI-based drug discovery and development. Numerous industry collaborations in Big Pharma, Specialty Pharma, Biotech, and Consumer Healthcare showcase the value of leveraging our technology to meld human experience and expertise with the power of machines to augment R&D decision-making across all major therapeutic areas. The company leverages the AlphaMeld^® platform to generate drug candidates for our industry partners and internal drug portfolio. For more information, please visit www.inveniai.com.

Contact:
Anita Ganjoo, Ph.D.
Corporate Communications
InveniAI
T: +1 203-273-8388
aganjoo@inveniai.com

Kyowa Kirin
Hiroki Nakamura
Media
+81-3-5205-7205
E-mail: media@kyowakirin.com