Insights

In the evolving landscape of Israeli biotech, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are playing crucial roles, shaping a promising future. Despite the challenges faced in 2023, the Israeli biotech community has demonstrated resilience and ingenuity through collaborations, secured funding, and the initiation of new ventures. This blog post explores the latest achievements, partnerships, and advancements that characterize the current state of AI and ML-powered biotech in Israel.

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Gilead and Compugen announced an exclusive license agreement, granting Gilead rights to the advanced development and commercialization of Compugen’s anti-IL18 binding protein antibodies. These antibodies show potential for treating various tumor types. Through Compugen’s computational discovery capabilities, COM503 was identified as a potential first-in-class antibody. It disrupts the interaction between the IL-18 binding protein and IL-18, impeding cancer growth in the tumor microenvironment.

The agreement includes a $60 million upfront payment and a $30 million near-term milestone payment, bringing a total deal value of up to $848 million.

AbbVie and Anima Biotech have partnered for the discovery and development of mRNA biology modulators targeting oncology and immunology. As part of the collaboration, Anima will receive an upfront payment of $42 million, along with potential milestone payments and royalties. The agreement grants AbbVie exclusive rights to license, develop, and commercialize programs.

Anima Biotech’s mRNA Lightning platform will be leveraged in the collaboration, providing AbbVie with advanced mRNA biology technology. This technology combines phenotypic screening with AI-driven elucidation of the mechanisms of action, enhancing AbbVie’s drug discovery capabilities.

As part of Teva’s Pivotal Growth strategy, the company has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Biolojic Design for the development of BD9, a therapeutic multi-specific antibody targeting IL-13/TSLP. BD9 is a computationally designed antibody, developed using Biolojic’s AI platform, which generates antibodies precisely binding to predefined epitopes. This precision enables specific functions, including agonism, antagonism, and selective binding. For an undisclosed payment, Teva has secured the rights to develop and commercialize the BD9 multibody. The focus will be exploring its potential as a treatment for atopic dermatitis and asthma.

Additionally, from Biolojic Design, AU-007, the first computationally designed monoclonal antibody, is undergoing clinical trials. This IL-2 antibody, designed for the treatment of solid tumors, advances to a phase 2 study following positive phase 1 data.

Funding Rounds

Mana.bio, a biotechnology company accelerating the development of nucleic acid-based therapeutics and vaccines through an AI-based lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery platform, has successfully closed an oversubscribed $19.5 million seed funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz. This funding will enable the company to advance the development of its proprietary AI LNP platform, aiming for safer, tissue-specific and more effective delivery of RNA and gene therapies.

PhaseV, an AI biotech company specializing in machine learning for optimizing trial design and retrospective analysis, has successfully secured $15 million in funding. These funds will significantly contribute to the advancement of PhaseV’s machine learning solutions, with a goal to improve the efficiency, certainty and overall success of clinical trials.

DenovAI, an AI-driven biophysics startup, has secured a $2 million pre-seed investment from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Merck, Teva, and the Israel Biotech Fund. Supported by AWS and backed by AION Labs, DenovAI utilizes advanced machine learning and computational biophysics to optimize the identification of antibodies and small protein biologics crucial for the human immune system’s defense against diseases. The platform also explores potential therapeutic applications.

Nevia Bio (formerly Gina Life), a company at the forefront of utilizing machine learning to analyze biomarker signatures in women’s vaginal secretions, has successfully secured $3.1 million in a seed round, following a $1.9 million pre-seed round. This funding will support clinical trials for ovarian cancer, expand the pipeline to address other women’s health indications, and enhance data science capabilities.

Scala Biodesign has officially emerged from stealth mode, securing $5.5 million in seed funding led by TLV Partners. The company employs evolutionary analysis, atomistic protein design calculations and AI to create proteins with enhanced properties. This approach streamlines the development of new medicines and foods, making the process more efficient and cost-effective.

Briya, a comprehensive healthcare data exchange platform, has successfully concluded a $11.5 million Series A funding round led by Team8, bringing the total funding for the company to $17 million. This financial support will enable Briya to further its commitment to revolutionizing data exchange between healthcare and life sciences organizations. Utilizing a blockchain-powered system, Briya standardizes electronic health records and optimizes AI, machine learning tools, real-world data and health economics studies to enhance clinical trials, ensure regulatory compliance and expedite drug discovery.

Protai, a startup combining proteomics and AI for drug discovery, disclosed an extension of its seed round, securing an additional $12 million to bring the total to $20 million. These additional funds will support the expansion of Protai’s oncology drug discovery pipeline, bolster data acquisition efforts and amplify discovery initiatives through strategic collaborations with pharmaceutical partners. Protai’s platform offers a comprehensive understanding of diseases at the protein level, improving predictions of patient responses to specific drugs and facilitating the discovery of novel drug targets often overlooked by genomic approaches.

QuantHealth, an AI-driven clinical trial design company, has successfully concluded a $15 million Series A funding round co-led by Bertelsmann Investments and Pitango HealthTech, bringing its total external funding to $20 million. The company utilizes proprietary AI technology, trained on extensive datasets, to simulate trials, enhancing efficiency, mitigating risk, and optimizing drug development. The additional funding will support the company’s commercial expansion, product development and platform diversification into new areas, such as preclinical and drug discovery functions.

New Horizons

CytoReason is expanding its collaboration with Sanofi, which commenced in 2021, to support Sanofi’s target discovery efforts in the realm of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) through the utilization of CytoReason’s AI technology, enabling in silico clinical trials. Under the agreement terms, Sanofi will make an undisclosed multimillion-dollar payment to the Israeli company.

Nucleai, an AI solutions provider in pathology and spatial biology, has announced two significant collaborations. The first involves a partnership with Adlai Nortye, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on immuno-oncology therapies, to discover and validate H&E-based biomarkers across the company’s Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. The second collaboration is with Mayo Clinic BioPharma Diagnostics, where Nucleai’s AI-powered spatial biology technology is combined with Mayo’s extensive data sets and clinical services. This collaboration aims to provide advanced digital pathology solutions supporting drug development and clinical practice.

Quris-AI has extended its collaboration with Merck KGaA, enabling the latter to enhance its use of Quris’s AI-based patient-on-chip platform for identifying liver toxicity risks associated with specific drug candidates. This extension follows a successful initial collaboration where Quris-AI demonstrated its ability to predict drug toxicity, outperforming conventional in vitro and in vivo methods. Upon Merck KGaA’s exercise of the option to secure an exclusive license for a specific disease domain for up to five years, Quris-AI may receive an undisclosed amount.

Exciting year ahead

As we reflect on the collaborations, funding and breakthroughs of 2023, the path forward for Israeli biotech looks even more promising. It continues to serve as a beacon of innovation in the global scientific landscape. As we enter 2024, anticipate impactful advancements driven by AI technologies across key research domains. Keep a keen eye on fascinating developments, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), organoid intelligence, AI foundation models applied to biological data, protein design, RNA targeting and delivery, and CRISPR.

Here’s to the trailblazers and innovators shaping the future of biotech. Join the vibrant AION Labs community, actively reshaping the landscape of AI in drug discovery and development. Feel free to share your questions or insights by commenting below or connecting with us.

By Arnon Fluksman, PhD, Scientific Analyst, AION Labs