Almirall, Absci Partner on AI Drug Discovery for Dermatology

Almirall S.A., a global biopharmaceutical company focused on dermatology, and Absci Corporation, a generative AI drug creation company, entered into a drug discovery partnership to develop and commercialize AI-designed therapeutics for chronic and debilitating dermatological diseases. The partnership combines Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation platform with Almirall’s dermatological expertise with the goal of delivering medicines to patients.

Absci will apply its de novo generative AI technology to create and commercialize therapeutic candidates for two dermatological targets. In addition to product royalties, Absci is eligible to receive up to approximately $650 million in upfront fees, R&D, and post-approval milestones across the two programs.

“Almirall chose Absci because their de novo platform brings truly novel innovation in solving the industry’s most challenging targets facing high unmet medical need,” said Almirall executive vice president of R&D and CSO Karl Ziegelbauer. “Our partnership underlines Almirall’s commitment to target innovative approaches to help patients suffering from severe skin diseases to achieve their dream of leading a healthy life.”

Absci founder and CEO Sean McClain said, “Our partnership with Almirall marks an important leap forward for dermatologic drug development and is poised to transform the lives of millions managing skin conditions. We believe the collaboration will generate tremendous scientific and technical insights for using AI drug creation to treat chronic inflammatory diseases more broadly. Working with a global leader and visionary in skin disease on this ambitious project will accelerate our journey in creating better biologics for a broad range of diseases affecting millions daily.”