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LONDON/BUDAPEST - Biotechnology company Turbine has formed a collaboration with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq:AZN), a $265 billion market cap leader with 82% gross margins, to apply artificial intelligence in streamlining antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) discovery, according to a press release issued Thursday. According to InvestingPro analysis, AstraZeneca is currently trading near its 52-week high, with 14 additional key insights available to subscribers.
The partnership aims to use Turbine’s AI platform to predict response mechanisms for ADCs, which are targeted cancer therapies that deliver drug payloads directly to tumor cells. The collaboration seeks to reduce the need for extensive cell line screening that typically slows the ADC discovery process.
Through a "lab-in-the-loop" approach, Turbine’s platform will recommend strategic subsets of cell lines for testing and predict outcomes across thousands of in silico models using AstraZeneca’s datasets. This method is designed to provide mechanistic insights by modeling not only cell survival but also changes in gene expression to better understand treatment response.
"By implementing a lab-in-the-loop approach, we can move beyond broad experimental screening toward a more efficient, targeted strategy that selects the ADC combinations most likely to succeed in patients," said Daniel Veres, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Turbine, in the statement.
This marks a continuation of the companies’ relationship, as they previously collaborated on using Turbine’s platform to identify resistance mechanisms to therapy in hematological cancers and to predict combination synergy involving DNA Damage Repair mechanisms.
Turbine’s technology aims to virtualize biological experiments to accelerate drug discovery processes. The company has previously established partnerships with other pharmaceutical firms including Bayer and MSD.
In other recent news, AstraZeneca has reported significant developments in its clinical trials. The company’s experimental drug, baxdrostat, has shown a statistically significant reduction in 24-hour ambulatory systolic blood pressure in patients with treatment-resistant hypertension during the Phase III Bax24 trial. This trial involved 218 patients who received either baxdrostat or a placebo in addition to their standard care over a 12-week period. Additionally, AstraZeneca, in collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo, announced that their drug Datroway achieved the main goals in the Phase III TROPION-Breast02 trial for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Datroway demonstrated significant improvements in both overall survival and progression-free survival compared to chemotherapy, marking the first time a therapy has shown a survival benefit in this patient population. These developments underscore AstraZeneca’s ongoing efforts in advancing treatments for complex health conditions. The trials have been conducted across multiple continents, involving a diverse group of participants.
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