VantAI will use its machine learning capabilities to identify novel target-effector pairs that Halda can use in designing its bifunctional small-molecule drugs.
VantAI and Connecticut-based Halda Therapeutics will unite to leverage machine learning to advance a novel class of bifunctional small-molecule drugs for cancer and immune-mediated diseases.
In an email to BioSpace, a spokesperson for VantAI declined to provide a specific financial breakdown for the agreement, revealing only that the AI-focused biotech is eligible to receive more than $1 billion from Halda, comprising a “meaningful” upfront payment as well as milestones across multiple programs. VantAI will also be eligible for tiered royalties on net sales of products that reach the market.
At the heart of Tuesday’s deal is VantAI’s Neo-1 foundation learning model and NeoLink high-throughput proteomics platform, which will help identify and validate target-effector pairs. These pairs form the core of Halda’s RIPTAC—regulated induced proximity targeting chimeras—platform, which uses bifunctional small molecules that bind to one target protein (a tumor-specific molecule) and one effector protein (a molecule with an essential cellular function).
By holding and arresting both effector and target proteins, RIPTAC compromises a crucial function in cancer cells, eventually leading to their death. Halda is putting this pathway to use through its lead candidate HLD-0915, an oral RIPTAC that targets the androgen receptor plus another protein involved in regulating transcription. The asset is being tested for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Halda’s approach, dubbed induced proximity, “is poised to unlock a new and exciting chapter of medicine,” VantAI CEO Zachary Carpenter said in a prepared statement on Tuesday. “Halda is leading this next wave,” he continued, adding that his company will support this push by using its AI capabilities to enable rational drug design, in turn opening up paths to “previously inaccessible targets.”
Aside from cancer, VantAI and Halda likewise hope to leverage the RIPTAC platform against immune-mediated diseases.
In recent years, VantAI has been picking up collaborators drawn by its machine learning platforms. In April 2022, for instance, the biotech signed on with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen to discover novel molecular-glue protein degraders for “important disease targets.” The partners at the time did not reveal specific financial terms nor did they identify priority indications.
VantAI then partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim, likewise to use its AI technology for protein degraders for undruggable targets.
VantAI is also working with Blueprint Medicines—which earlier this year got acquired by Sanofi for $9.5 billion—under a February 2022 contract that was later amended. As with its other partnerships, VantAI is helping to identify targeted protein degraders.
VantAI is one of many “vant” companies under the Roivant umbrella. Roivant builds out “nimble” subsidiaries that are dedicated to specific technologies.
