Merck KGaA signs another AI deal

Merck KGaA is doubling down on AI through a new collaboration agreement with tech firm Iktos, using its generative modeling technology to speed up the discovery and design of promising new compounds. Iktos’ AI tech, which is based on deep generative models, automatically designs virtual novel molecules that have desired activities for treating a given disease. The company says that this tackles one of the key challenges in drug design: rapid identification of molecules which simultaneously satisfy multiple drug-like criteria for clinical testing. The technology is already established in other fields, such as image processing and automatic translation, but has only recently been applied to chemistry. “This agreement is another illustration of how we aim to enrich our discovery engine with strategic technology-focused collaborations,” said Belén Garijo, member of the executive board and CEO of healthcare at Merck. “Artificial intelligence is emerging as a pillar in the biopharmaceutical R&D model, giving us exponential opportunity to complement our existing expertise with further speed and better precision. For patients, this could mean faster access to novel treatment options.”