Isomorphic inks deals with Eli Lilly and Novartis for drug discovery

Isomorphic Labs, the London-based, drug discovery-focused spin-out of Google AI R&D division DeepMind, today announced that it’s entered into strategic partnerships with two pharmaceutical giants, Eli Lilly and Novartis, to apply AI to discover new medications to treat challenging diseases.

The deals have a combined value of around $3 billion. Isomorphic will receive $45 million upfront from Eli Lilly and potentially up to $1.7 billion based on performance milestones, excluding royalties. Novartis, meanwhile, will pay $37.5 million upfront in addition to funding “select” research costs and as much as $1.2 billion (also excluding royalties) over time.

“We’re thrilled to embark on this partnership and apply our proprietary technology platform,” Isomorphic CEO Demis Hassabis was quote as saying in a press release. “The focus we share on advancing groundbreaking drug design approaches and appreciation of state-of-the-art science makes [these] partnership[s] particularly compelling.”

Isomorphic Labs, which Hassabis founded in 2021, draws on DeepMind’s AlphaFold 2 AI technology that can be used to predict protein structures in the human body. By uncovering protein structures, researchers can find new target pathways to deliver drugs for fighting disease.

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