BMS two billion-dollar transactions in two days: introducing new drugs and expanding AI to help new drug R&D cooperation

Recently, BMS can be described as the best.

TIGIT, T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain protein, is specifically expressed on NK cells and T cells, and interacts with PVRL2 and PVRL3 in PVR (CD155) and PVR-like proteins (which binds to PVR and PVRL3) CD96 and CD226 will compete with TIGIT for binding to PVR.

These research findings need to be further in-depth and detailed research.

At present, TIGIT has become another immune checkpoint that has attracted much attention after PD-1/PDL1 and CTLA4, but no relevant targeted drugs have been approved.

These TIGIT inhibitors in the clinical stage are not only used in combination with PD-1/L1 to treat tumors, but also combined with darlimumab (targeting CD38)/rituximab (targeting CD20) to treat multiple cases Myeloma/B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, combined with Pomalidimide (cereblon ligand) and chemotherapy for multiple myeloma, combined with pembrolizumab (PD-1 antibody) and CTLA-4 inhibitor / Lovatinib (tyrosine kinase inhibitor) three-drug combination for the treatment of melanoma, combined with zimberelimab (PD-1 monoclonal antibody) and AB928 (biadenosine receptor antagonist) for the treatment of NSCLC.

In addition, in recent years, pharmaceutical companies have reached several deals around TIGIT inhibitors.

AI helps new drug research and development, and many companies reach cooperation

A new drug needs to go through the four stages of drug discovery, preclinical research, clinical research, and approval and marketing from the idea to commercial sales.

At present, AI is mainly used in drug discovery and preclinical research, among which target discovery is the most popular field in AI+ drug research and development.

It is reported that from 2013 to 2018, there were 170 AI-related business operations (such as mergers and acquisitions, cooperation, self-development, etc.

This time, the cooperation between BMS and Exscientia is actually based on the existing cooperation.

In addition, this year, many companies have reached cooperation on AI-assisted research and development of new drugs.

• On January 28, Tempus, a leader in the field of artificial intelligence and precision medicine, expanded the cooperation agreement with BMS to analyze and discover RNA-based targets;

• On January 28, OSE and MAbSilico expanded their cooperation to use AI to promote the development of new antibody therapeutics;

• On February 26, Roivant acquired SiKang Pharmaceutical for US$450 million in equity to improve computational drug discovery capabilities;

• On March 2, Iktos and Pfizer reached an AI new drug development cooperation;

• On March 25th, Jingtai Technology, an AI drug research and development company driven by digitization and intelligence, and Qingyu Pharmaceutical, a company focused on pioneering drug research and development, reached a strategic cooperation to carry out drug research and development cooperation on multiple anti-tumor drug targets;

• On April 12th, NVIDIA and Schrödinger reached a strategic cooperation.

• On April 16, Relay, a precision drug company that combines leading computing and experimental technologies to change the drug discovery process, announced the acquisition of ZebiAI.

• On April 27th, InveniAI® LLC, which applied advanced AI and machine learning in the field of drug discovery and development to achieve an innovative transformation, announced a multi-target drug discovery collaboration with Shiono Yoshi Pharmaceutical;

• On May 12, Hebo Medicine and Baitu Biopharmaceutical reached a strategic cooperation agreement.