Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Inceptive Nucleics, a company that builds foundation models of life, have announced a strategic collaboration agreement to increase the pace of therapeutic innovation.
By integrating Inceptive’s generative AI models with Alnylam’s R&D engine, Alnylam aims to accelerate the discovery of novel RNAi therapeutics as it advances ambitious pipeline expansion goals as part of its Alnylam 2030 strategy.
The collaboration seeks to advance siRNA design, by modelling target mRNAs and jointly exploring sequence space and novel chemical modifications to enhance potency and efficacy, and by predicting top-performing therapeutic candidates in preclinical models for further development by Alnylam. The goal is to help Alnylam prioritise the most promising molecules and improve experimental productivity.
The collaboration pairs Alnylam’s RNAi leadership with Inceptive’s foundation models and AI expertise to catalyse and accelerate progress in nucleic-acid based drug design. Inceptive focuses on developing models for sequence-based medicines such as RNAi therapeutics, which were pioneered by Alnylam.
• Alnylam’s platform: An R&D engine that has produced six approved drugs, backed by 20+ years of proprietary siRNA data
• Inceptive’s foundation models of life: AI models for sequence-based medicines that generalise across programmes and continuously improve.
Yvonne Greenstreet, CEO of Alnylam, said: “Inceptive stands apart as one of the most visionary companies working at the intersection of AI and biology. It is led by pioneers of the AI revolution and driven by an ambitious mission to fundamentally reinvent how RNA medicines are designed. Together, we have an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate the creation of transformative medicines with a speed, ingenuity and sophistication that simply has not been possible before.”
Inceptive’s foundation model learns the patterns underlying biology and can adapt to diverse therapeutic modalities without retraining. In joint exploratory work, the model achieved exceptional performance within weeks, uncovering meaningful biological insights from relatively small data sets to characterise siRNA molecules, the active ingredient in RNAi therapeutics.
Jakob Uszkoreit, Inceptive co-founder and CEO, commented: “Most drug design still works through a process of trial and error, testing thousands of molecules and hoping something sticks. Inceptive was built on a different premise: that life follows rules of such complexity that only AI can learn them. Alnylam’s breakthrough platform and scientific vision are an ideal match for AI. Together, we’re not just accelerating drug discovery; we’re changing the way we understand and improve life.”
The collaboration is valued at up to $2bn with upfront consideration of $30m, including cash and the purchase of Inceptive equity. Inceptive is eligible to receive additional payments based on the achievement of preclinical, regulatory, and commercial sales milestones.