Cystic fibrosis drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals forged a three-year collaborative dealwith U.K.-based machine learning specialist Genomics plc to improve the discovery of targets for precision medicines.
The companies will harness Genomics machine-learning technology to gain a greater understanding of the “clinical impact of human genetic variation and patient stratification in diseases with significant unmet need.” Boston-based Vertex said the partnership, which could be expanded to five years, will further advance the company’s efforts to develop transformative precision medicines for people with serious diseases.
U.K.-based Genomics plc’s analysis engine used genetics to understand human biology and the likely efficacy and safety of potential novel medicines, according to company data. The Genomics engine includes more than 100 billion data points and links “human genetic variation at over 14 million positions in the human genome to changes in 7,000 molecular, cellular, and physiological measurements and disease outcomes.” Through the use of proprietary machine learning and statistical algorithms, Genomics can predict the impact of therapeutic interventions, the company said.
Researchers from Vertex and Genomics will collaborate on targeting certain diseases, although they did not disclose which diseases would be in their sights for this project. The companies noted the diseases will be ones where “human genetic evidence may be particularly powerful.”
Genomics founder and chief executive officer Peter Donnelly said genetics has been shown to have a “substantial impact” on novel drug targets. Genomics next generation of data and algorithms “promises to be transformative, not just for target discovery but in biomarker selection and patient stratification,” he said. Donnelly added that the partnership with Vertex will allow Genomics to realize such a promise to benefit patients and their families.
In an interview with The Telegraph of London, Donnelly said that about 90 percent of drugs taken into the clinic fail. That’s largely due to a lack of understanding about human biology. That’s where the machine learning Genomics provides can help in the process, he said. In his interview with The Telegraph, Donnelly explained how Genomics can help drug manufacturing companies.
“If you are drug company and want to stop a disease by inhibiting say, a protein, we can use our technology to look for individuals who have a genetic variance that inhibits that same protein, a natural weak version of the drug if you like, and see what happens to them and say, if you inhibit that protein, these things will happen to them,” he told The Telegraph.
David Altshuler, head of global research and chief scientific officer of Vertex, said the partnership with Genomics plc will “pioneer new uses of genomic tools and technologies” that will advance the research Vertex is doing.
Under terms of the deal, Vertex will make undisclosed milestone and royalty payments to the company for novel targets resulting from the collaboration that are taken through clinical development. Altshuler will also join the Genomics plc Board of Directors.
In addition to the collaboration, Vertex also invested $13.6 million into a Series B financing round for Genomics plc.
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