Breakthrough in AI-Driven Drug Discovery: Recursion Pharmaceuticals Achieves Milestone
In a significant development, Recursion Pharmaceuticals has successfully utilized its artificial intelligence-powered drug discovery platform to identify a key biological target for treating solid tumors and lymphoma. The company has matched this target with a drug candidate and obtained regulatory approval to initiate clinical trials in under 18 months.
CEO Chris Gibson hailed this achievement as a major proof point for the company and the entire techbio industry. The FDA has cleared the investigational new drug application for a phase 1/2 clinical trial of the experimental drug candidate, REC-1245, which has the potential to treat over 100,000 patients in the US and EU.
The trial will assess the safety and tolerability of REC-1245, with phase 1 data expected to be completed by the end of next year. The drug targets RBM39, a novel marker functionally similar to CDK12, to treat advanced HR-proficient cancers such as ovarian, prostate, breast, and pancreatic cancers.
Gibson emphasized that this breakthrough was made possible by the company’s massive datasets and advanced tools, which enabled a “Google-search equivalent” approach to identifying the target. This achievement marks a significant step forward in leveraging AI to accelerate drug discovery and reduce costs.
Despite the promising development, Recursion’s shares have fallen 38% in 2024, although they remain 60% below their 52-week high. The company’s planned merger with Exscientia will provide access to even more data, and analysts expect a 64% return, with an average price target of $10.14.
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