AstraZeneca's $555 Million AI-Powered Gene-Editing Deal with Algen Biotechnologies

AstraZeneca signs $555mn AI deal to develop gene-editing therapies

AstraZeneca has signed a $555mn deal with a San Francisco-based biotech business that specialises in artificial intelligence -- the latest pharmaceutical company to seek an AI partner for drug development. The agreement with Algen Biotechnologies gives AstraZeneca exclusive rights to develop and commercialise therapies from the gene-editing technology known as Crispr. Algen was spun out of the Berkeley lab where Jennifer Doudna developed the technology, for which she won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2020. Doudna is an adviser to Algen. Algen will receive up to $555mn for hitting regulatory and commercial milestones in collaboration with AstraZeneca, which is not taking an equity stake. It has previously raised $11mn and received a $350,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2021 for cancer research. While AI has the potential to speed up successful drug testing, there are few AI-discovered drugs in late-stage clinical trials, and not one has been approved. Meanwhile, the amount of cash flooding into all AI investments is seen by many as a bubble. With AI, "I think we are definitely in a period of hype at the moment," Jim Weatherall, AstraZeneca's chief data scientist, said. "Today, I think our way of controlling the hype is to carefully introduce AI as a tool" for the company's scientists, he added. "To be sure, [AI] is no magic bullet for drug development. While sometimes it is overhyped, you don't want to downplay it either because the potential of this technology is huge." New AI tools are increasingly sought by big pharma companies to save on costs and time. In 2023, Roche partnered with Nvidia to work on drug development. AstraZeneca in 2019 started a collaboration with BenevolentAI for lung and kidney diseases. But UK-based Benevolent's shares plunged more than 99 per cent before it delisted in March. AstraZeneca says it still has a partnership with Benevolent. Algen, which has previously applied machine learning to oncology treatments, will be working for AstraZeneca on immune system diseases. "We are not just analysing data using AI," said Chun-Hao Huang, Algen's co-founder. Rather, AI and Crispr are being paired together to generate solutions, he said. New drugs fail up to 90 per cent of the time when they reach clinical trials. For AI to be successful, pharmaceutical companies need to do a better job at benchmarking how the technology is performing versus conventional methods, said Alex Zhavoronkov, chief executive of AI for drug discovery company Insilico. For now, "the role of the pharma industry in AI is very limited when it comes to early stage drug discovery," he said.

AstraZeneca signs USD555 million AI gene-editing deal - FT

(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC has signed a USD555 million deal with San Francisco-based Algen Biotechnologies to develop gene-editing therapies using artificial intelligence, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The Cambridge, England-based pharmaceutical company will gain exclusive rights to develop and commercialise treatments from Algen's Crispr-based gene-editing platform. Algen, a spinout from Jennifer Doudna's Berkeley lab - where the gene-editing technology known as Crispr - will receive milestone payments of up to USD555 million. Doudna, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2020, serves as an adviser to Algen. AstraZeneca's chief data scientist Jim Weatherall said that while AI's potential in drug discovery is "huge", the company is carefully introducing it "as a tool" amid what he described as a "period of hype." The collaboration marks AstraZeneca's latest move into AI-led research, following previous partnerships with companies such as BenevolentAI. Algen will work with AstraZeneca on developing immune system disease therapies, pairing AI and Crispr to accelerate new drug discovery. Shares in AstraZeneca were up 0.6% at 12,728.69 pence in London on Monday morning. Comments and questions to [email protected] Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.