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Hansoh Expands AI Partnership with Atomwise after Early Success for Key Target in Therapy-Evading Cancers

April 15, 2020 Off By BusinessWire

Atomwise and Hansoh successfully identified potent hit compounds each having unique composition of matter for their first AI discovery program against drug-resistant oncology targets

SHANGHAI & SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AI—Hansoh Pharma (3692:HK), a leading biopharmaceutical company in China, and Atomwise, the leader in artificial intelligence (AI) for drug discovery, today announced the expansion of their strategic partnership for AI-accelerated drug discovery. Expansion of the partnership immediately follows completion of their first hit-discovery collaboration, which successfully identified and experimentally confirmed several novel hit compounds for a previously challenging oncology target in only 4 months.

The collaboration began in November 2019, focusing on identifying hit compounds that are specific towards an intractable drug target. Atomwise performed AI-based molecular screening using their proprietary AI technology, AtomNet, to generate compound hits with predicted activity against multiple mutant forms of the oncology targets for Hansoh. With AtomNet, the collaboration was able to screen an ultra-large and diverse virtual library of over 12 billion compounds, finding 200 predicted candidates displaying specificity for the targets in only 2 weeks from a single virtual screen.

“We are really impressed by Atomwise’s capability to deliver potential candidates,” said Rudi Bao, M.D. Ph.D., SVP of Hansoh R&D. “Our expanded partnership will accelerate major initiatives to discover innovative medicines for patients.”

“It is a privilege to partner with Hansoh Pharma to develop their first-in-class or best-in-class portfolio of novel small molecule therapies,” said Dr. Abraham Heifets, CEO of Atomwise. “Therapies with high specificity and potency are urgently needed for oncology, infectious diseases, and personalized medicine. We look forward to expanding our work with Hansoh on additional challenging targets.”

About Hansoh Pharma

Hansoh Pharma (3692:HK) is a leading biopharmaceutical company in China committed to discovering and developing life-changing medicines to help patients conquer serious diseases and disorders. Hansoh Pharma has over 9,000 dedicated employees in China and the United States.

Founded in 1995, Hansoh has fully integrated research and development, manufacturing, and commercial capabilities, supporting a leadership position in oncology, central nervous system (CNS), anti-infectives, gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases, among others. With 1,200 professionals across R&D, Hansoh has developed several internally discovered drug candidates into NMPA-approved innovative medicines, including morinidazole (迈灵达®), a third-generation nitroimidazole antibiotic; PEG-loxenatide (孚来美®), the first once-weekly long-acting GLP-1 analogue discovered and developed in China for the treatment of diabetes; flumatinib (昕福®), a second-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor for frontline treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML); and almonertinib (阿美乐®), a third-generation EGFR inhibitor for the treatment of NSCLC.

For more information, please visit www.hspharm.com.

About Atomwise

Atomwise Inc. invented the first deep learning AI technology for structure-based small molecule drug discovery. Created in 2012, today Atomwise performs hundreds of projects per year in partnership with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies, as well as more than 200 universities and hospitals in 40 countries. Atomwise has raised over $50 million from leading venture capital firms to support the development and application of its AI technology. Learn more at atomwise.com or follow @AtomwiseInc.