GUILFORD, Conn., April 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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, today announced a multi-target drug discovery collaboration with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Osaka, Japan; President and CEO: Isao Teshirogi, Ph.D. hereafter "Shionogi") a global, research-driven pharmaceutical company.

The multi-year collaboration will combine InveniAI's AI platform, AlphaMeld^?, to research and validate targets with Shionogi's expertise in developing and commercializing appropriate therapeutic modalities. Shionogi will synthesize drugs against targets proposed by InveniAI for certain strategic diseases of interest to Shionogi and be responsible for developing, manufacturing, and commercializing the candidates.

"Shionogi constantly strives to supply the best possible medicines to protect the health and wellbeing of the patients we serve, and we are delighted to further this mission through our collaboration with InveniAI. This collaboration allows us to use the power of AI to automate the early discovery phase by trawling vast datasets to identify targets, find candidate molecules, and predict favorable outcomes. This will ultimately help us reduce discovery times and get our medicines to patients who are living without favorable treatment options," said Ryuichi Kiyama, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Senior Executive Officer, Head of Pharmaceutical Research Division.

"As we increasingly witness the transformational impact of AI applications in pharmaceutical development, we are excited to combine forces with Shionogi to apply an efficient data-driven approach to drug discovery. Our AI platform, AlphaMeld^?, can comprehensively identify biological targets for a disease and align the best drug modalities while prioritizing both safety and efficacy. The complex balance of scientific, medical, chemical, biological, and strategic considerations is taken into account so that our domain experts and drug developers can quickly get to work knowing that all the crucial data points have been considered in searching for transformational treatment options," said Krishnan Nandabalan, Ph.D., President and CEO, InveniAI. "The platform has seen multiple validations through our collaborations and is now well-positioned for de-novo drug discovery," he added.

InveniAI^??is eligible to receive up to $200 million per program for a combination of upfront payments, development and commercial milestones, and royalties.

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 Shionogi & Co., Ltd. Shionogi & Co., Ltd. is a major research-driven pharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing benefits to patients based on its corporate philosophy of "supplying the best possible medicine to protect the health and wellbeing of the patients we serve." Shionogi's research and development currently target two therapeutic areas: infectious diseases, and pain/CNS disorders. For over 50 years, Shionogi has developed and commercialized innovative oral and parenteral anti-infectives. In addition, Shionogi is engaged in new research areas, such as obesity/geriatric metabolic diseases and oncology/immunology. Contributing to the health and QOL of patients around the world through development in these therapeutic areas is Shionogi's primary goal. For more details, please visit www.shionogi.co.jp/en/.

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, AlphaMeld^?, an AI- and ML-powered platform to harness petabytes of disparate data sets to recognize and unlock value for 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 AlphaMeld^??to augment and accelerate drug discovery programs for our industry partners. For more information, please visit www.inveniai.com.

Contact InveniAI LLC Anita Ganjoo, Ph.D. Corporate Communications T:?+1 203 643 8041 E-mail:?aganjoo@inveniai.com

Contact Corporate Communications Department Shionogi & Co., Ltd. T: +81-6-6209-7885