Bayer, which recently introduced a new operating model, has entered a strategic collaboration with Aignostics, a spin-off from Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, focused on artificial intelligence (AI)-powered approaches with applications in precision oncology drug research and development.
 
The partners will co-create a novel target identification platform that leverages Aignostics’ technology and proprietary multimodal patient cohorts, and Bayer’s expertise in discovering and developing novel oncology therapies.
 
In addition, the collaboration will include the development of computational pathology algorithms powered by AI and machine learning (ML) that connect baseline pathology data, such as molecular tumor profiles, with clinical data, such as patient outcomes, to enable better patient identification, stratification, and selection for clinical trials.
 
The goal of the multi-year research collaboration is to identify novel cancer targets with a strong disease link through AI models applied to multimodal patient data and to accelerate clinical development of oncology programs. This approach has the potential to address some of the challenges currently experienced in target discovery and disease heterogeneity.

Integrating AI, ML and Multimodal Pathology into Drug Development

“Gaining insights into human disease biology, discovering targets with a strong disease link by integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning and multimodal pathology into precision drug development has a huge potential for our R&D innovation strategy,” said Christian Rommel, Member of the Executive Committee of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division and Head of Research and Development. “Bringing Aignostics’ technical knowhow and their access to large patient datasets together with Bayer’s expertise in cancer research and development will enable discoveries and faster clinical development, helping to provide cancer patients with more impactful medicines.”
 
The collaboration will leverage Aignostics’ technology and access to longitudinal, multimodal clinical data sets in well characterized patient cohorts to discover new oncology targets for high unmet medical need indications. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will collaborate on multiple discovery programs and initiate at least two target identification programs.
 
“Innovation at Aignostics has always been fueled by close collaboration with clinicians and biopharma. With this partnership, we’re thrilled to take that approach to the next level. Fusing our technology and multimodal data with Bayer’s extensive expertise in drug discovery and clinical development has the potential to generate better drugs for patients with high unmet need in less time,” said Viktor Matyas, CEO of Aignostics GmbH.
 
Aignostics will receive an upfront payment and is eligible to receive success-based milestone payments and royalties on any commercialized therapies that result from the collaboration.