Boehringer Ingelheim joins IBM to employ GenAI for novel antibody therapeutics, promising a leap in biological drug development.
Boehringer Ingelheim and IBM have announced a pivotal partnership, utilizing IBM’s GenAI technologies to revolutionize therapeutic antibody discovery. With Andrew Nixon of Boehringer at the helm, this collaboration aims to make in silico biologic drug discovery an operational reality. IBM, under Alessandro Curioni’s guidance, brings to the table its multimodal foundation model technologies, known for extending the reach of AI beyond linguistic applications, to expedite Boehringer’s therapeutic creation.
This strategic alliance addresses the intricate, lengthy journey of therapeutic antibody development, vital in treating a spectrum of diseases such as cancer, autoimmune, and infectious diseases. Using IBM’s GenAI, Boehringer plans to enhance the process of discovering new human antibody sequences. The methodology involves leveraging disease-relevant data, aiming to predict efficient antibody molecules with improved specificity and developability.
The collaboration is a fusion of Boehringer’s pharmaceutical prowess and IBM’s innovative GenAI capabilities. Boehringer’s role involves the experimental validation of AI-suggested antibody candidates, forming a feedback loop to refine the GenAI methods further. This partnership not only advances Boehringer’s drug development capabilities but also showcases IBM’s commitment to utilizing GenAI for biologic and small molecule innovation.