Friday, September 15, 2023
Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) and Related Sciences (RS), a data science-driven drug discovery company, have announced a collaborative agreement involving multiple programs. The partnership's goal is to implement Logica™ in exploring various previously untargeted assets within the RS portfolio. Logica is an AI-powered drug solution that translates biological insights into optimized drug candidates.
In this collaborative venture, RS will work closely alongside the teams from Charles River and Valo Health to deploy Logica in the quest for innovative medicines aimed at addressing various unmet medical needs, including cancer immunotherapy, autoimmunity, and inflammatory diseases.
Julie Frearson, PhD, who serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Charles River, expressed enthusiasm for harnessing Logica to explore groundbreaking therapeutics. She highlighted the distinctiveness of Logica's platform, which integrates AI and machine learning (ML)-enhanced in silico discovery, high-powered DNA-encoded libraries, and conventional screening methods. This integrated approach has the potential to significantly expedite the drug discovery and development process, moving from target identification to candidate selection in just over two years.
Adam Kolom, Founder and CEO of Related Sciences, emphasized the synergy between Related Sciences' specialized technologies and diverse screening approaches and Logica's advanced AI/ML capabilities and hit identification techniques. He noted that Logica's risk-sharing business model complements Related Sciences' data-driven, multi-technology approach to drug discovery.
Logica, jointly launched in 2022 by Charles River and Valo Health, is redefining small molecule drug discovery by leveraging the AI-powered Valo Opal Computational PlatformTM and Charles River's expertise in preclinical research. It provides clients with a comprehensive drug discovery solution that seamlessly transitions from target identification to candidate selection. Logica is offered as a fully managed, risk-sharing model, with client costs predominantly tied to successful outcomes.
Logica utilizes cutting-edge predictive models, chemical design and synthesis capabilities, DNA-encoded libraries, and in silico high throughput screening from Valo's Opal Computational Platform, in conjunction with Charles River's extensive capabilities in optimizing every aspect of the discovery process, including high throughput screening, medicinal chemistry, ADME, biology, pharmacology, safety testing, and IND submission. This collaboration creates a computation-driven, unified approach to progressing from target identification to candidate selection.
In the previous year, Charles River and Flagship's Pioneering Medicines also announced a partnership to deploy Logica across a portfolio of targets, with the goal of developing optimized small molecules for novel therapies addressing unmet medical needs.
