Collaborative Partnership Established Between XtalPi and Dong-A ST in Immunology Therapy Research and Development

South Korea's leading pharmaceutical company, Dong-A ST, has announced a collaboration with XtalPi, a US-based biotech company known for its AI-driven drug discovery platform. The partnership aims to develop innovative therapies for immunological and inflammatory diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Dong-A ST and XtalPi will co-identify targets and discover first-in-class or best-in-class drug candidates. XtalPi's proprietary platform will be utilised for deep-learning-based molecule design, molecular dynamics simulations, automated chemical synthesis, and experimental validation.

Dong-A ST will participate actively throughout the entire R&D process, including candidate validation, efficacy and safety testing, and formulation of preclinical and clinical development strategies. This collaboration will strengthen Dong-A ST's pipeline in the immunology and inflammation space.

Jae-Hong Park, Head of R&D at Dong-A ST, expressed optimism about the collaboration accelerating the development of next-generation treatments for immune and inflammatory diseases. John Wang, Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at XtalPi, shared similar sentiments, expressing confidence in the collaboration's potential to produce competitive precision medicines.

The project will also explore strategies for pipeline expansion beyond small molecule therapeutics into areas such as targeted protein degradation (TPD), biologics, antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), and gene therapies.

Both companies have open innovation offices in Boston, USA, which will facilitate closer and more efficient collaboration. The head of research and development at Dong-A ST involved in joint research projects with XtalPi is Dr. Kyunghyun Park.

XtalPi's platform integrates artificial intelligence (AI), quantum physics, and large-scale automated robotic experiments. The collaboration between Dong-A ST and XtalPi aims to unlock unique market opportunities by discovering and validating novel drug candidates across multiple modalities.

Through this partnership, Dong-A ST aims to strengthen its pipeline in the immunology and inflammation space and deliver transformative therapies for global patients suffering from immune and inflammatory diseases. The collaboration was formalized with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two companies.