Nov 4, 2024

Credit: Insilico Medicine & HSBC Insilico Medicine(“Insilico”), a global leading generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biotechnology company, today announced it has signed a Revolving Loan Facility of up to US$100 million with HSBC, one of the world's largest banks and financial services institutions. HSBC’s customized financing solution will support Insilico’s global development centered on multiple sites, as well as the expansion of innovative advantages, thus driving the economy growth in the Greater Bay Area. Insilico is committed to driving advancements in healthcare using cutting-edge AI technology, reducing costs and improving efficiency in early-stage drug development, and meeting unmet clinical needs with higher efficiency and quality. The credit line, provided from HSBC New Economy Fund, will support the expansion of Insilico's proprietary novel drug discovery pipeline and the upgrade of its end-to-end diversified AI platform, Pharma.AI. “HSBC is a key partner in the global development of Insilico, with its global network coverage, diversified business support, strong innovation and financial strength”, says Feng Ren, PhD, Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Insilico Medicine. "With HSBC's support in cross-border business, payment and digital solution, Insilico will take its Hong Kong headquarter as a starting point to integrate the advantages of various regions and accelerate the company's global business process." Anita Ou, Managing Director, Head of Enterprise Banking, Commercial Banking, Hong Kong, HSBC, said, "The combination of biotech and AI technology holds the potential to revolutionize drug discovery and development while enhancing access to healthcare. By providing cross-border financing solution to innovative biotech firms, banks not only support scientific breakthroughs but also fuel societal well-being. Leveraging our extensive global network and financing expertise, HSBC is uniquely positioned to provide unparalleled support for these forward-thinking companies." According to a Frost & Sullivan report, the innovative drug market is expected to reach $526 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 3.4%. Today, a novel drug is still expected to cost 10 years and $1 billion, calling for ground-breaking technologies including artificial intelligence to break through the bottlenecks. The biopharma industry is in even more urgent need for real-life cases and proof of concepts to stay confident. In 2016, Insilico first described  the concept of using generative AI for the design of novel molecules  in a peer-reviewed journal, which laid the foundation for the commercially available  Pharma.AI  platform. In 2019. Insilico Medicine established office in Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP), building target discovery and platform application teams to empower research collaborations with top research institutes including the University of Cambridge, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Zurich, and the University of Toronto. Since then, Insilico keeps integrating technical breakthroughs into Pharma.AI platform, which is currently a generative AI-powered solution spanning across biology, chemistry and clinical development. Powered by Pharma.AI, Insilico has  nominated 19 preclinical candidates  in its comprehensive portfolio of over 30 assets since 2021 and has received IND approval for 9 molecules. In early 2024, Insilico published a  Nature Biotechnology  paper presenting the entire R&D journey from AI algorithms to Phase II clinical trials of ISM001_055, the company’s lead drug pipeline with AI-discovered target and AI-designed structure. Following that, Insilico has recently announced positive preliminary results from a Phase IIa trial (NCT05938920), where ISM001_055 showed favorable safety and tolerability across all dose levels, as well as dose-dependent response in forced vital capacity (FVC), after only 12 weeks of dosage. About Insilico Medicine Insilico Medicine, a global clinical stage biotechnology company powered by generative AI, is connecting biology, chemistry and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. www.insilico.com Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system. Media Contact