Absci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI), a data-first generative AI drug creation company, and Invetx, a pioneer in protein-based therapeutics for animal health, today announced a strategic partnership to harness Absci’s AI Drug Creation models to create an innovative Half-Life Extension (HLE) platform for animal health applications.
“Absci has built a leading generative AI Drug Creation platform for therapeutic antibodies and we’re excited to bring this expertise into animal health,” said Sean McClain, Founder and CEO of Absci. “We look forward to working with Invetx to address the large underserved animal health market by leveraging our proven success in designing Half-Life Extension technologies for human antibodies to advance the standard of care in veterinary medicine.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Absci will utilize its AI models to design novel modular antibody sequences that confer Half-Life Extension in specific animal species, Invetx will have rights, subject to the agreement’s financial and other terms, to use the HLE platform in multiple products to enhance duration of therapeutic effect and customer convenience, both significant potential differentiators in the animal health market. The partnership includes R&D funding, as well as election fees, milestone payments, and royalties on a per-product basis.
“Invetx is a pioneer in creating novel, protein-based animal health therapeutics and we are excited to leverage the power of AI to enhance the development of our pipeline", said Juergen Horn, President of Invetx. “We selected Absci for this collaboration because of their leading platform for generative AI design of human antibodies. By partnering together, we have an opportunity to build a scalable platform for bringing innovative specialty therapeutics for companion animals to market.”
The collaboration has the potential to address significant unmet needs in animal health, with initial applications for large-market indications in canines, and with the potential to expand to other companion animals.