(US and Canada) PostEra, a biotechnology company specializing in artificial intelligence for preclinical drug discovery, today announced a multi-target collaboration with Amgen, a leading biotechnology company.

The collaboration will leverage PostEra’s AI platform, Proton, a pioneering innovation in generative chemistry and synthesis-aware design, and Amgen’s drug discovery expertise, to advance up to 5 small molecule programs. Upon a certain number of programs entering the collaboration, Amgen will have the option to access some of PostEra’s key AI technologies for its in-house programs, outside of the collaboration.

The agreement includes upfront funding, and milestone payments, in addition to royalties on any approved products arising from the collaboration.

“We are excited to collaborate with Amgen, which has a wealth of expertise across multiple therapeutic areas and an illustrious history of tackling some of biology’s hardest targets”, said Dr Alpha Lee, CSO of PostEra. “The Proton platform has been validated repeatedly in its ability to significantly tackle even the most challenging small molecule drug discovery programs”. “We believe AI can significantly improve drug discovery but we’re also aware of the hype around the technology. As such we’ve worked hard to prove the value of Proton on real discovery programs, with multiple partners, across multiple therapeutic areas”, added Aaron Morris, CEO of PostEra.