Right on the heels of its IPO, Insilico Medicine is starting the year with an oncology discovery and development pact with French pharma Servier.
The AI biotech could nab up to $32 million in a mix of upfront and R&D related payments, with the total research pact “valued up to $888 million,” according to a Jan. 4 press release.
This deal is focused on finding and creating new drugs for “challenging targets” in cancer research by tapping Insilico’s AI platform, known as Pharma.AI.
Insilico will lead the AI-driven discovery and development, while Servier will share R&D expenses and lead clinical validation, as well as any future sales work.
The deal came less than a week after Insilico started trading from its new Hong Kong listing, where it raised HKD 2.277 billion ($293 million).
“I am excited to see the collaboration — it is yet another strong acknowledgment of our AI capabilities and R&D expertise,” Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., founder, CEO and CBO of Insilico Medicine, said in the release.
The company is clearly looking to pick up where it left off last year, which featured a $110 million venture capital round back in March. Insilico also inked multiple R&D deals with global drugmakers in 2025, including a pact with Eli Lilly potentially worth more than $100 million in November.
Since its 2014 founding, the former Fierce Medtech Fierce 15 and Fierce 50 winner has employed generative AI programs to help design molecules into potential drugs across a variety of diseases for its Big Pharma customers, as well as for its own internal research pipeline focused on fibrosis and longevity.
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The company’s Pharma.AI platform spans target identification, small-molecule generation, and the prediction of clinical outcomes. Insilico also aims to bring more automation to laboratories, boosting their throughput in examining the countless compounds that AI can provide.
Servier, too, has been busy making deals in recent months. The Insilico pact comes after it looked to charge up its neurology pipeline with a clinical-stage candidate sourced from U.K. biotech Kaerus Bioscience for a rare genetic disease, offering as much as $450 million for KER-0193, a potential therapy for Fragile X syndrome, back in September.
Just before that deal, the pharma shelled out a hefty $210 million upfront payment for ex-U.S. rights to a potential first-in-class cancer drug from Ideaya Biosciences. That candidate, a protein kinase C inhibitor called darovasertib, is already being put through its paces in several mid- and late-stage trials.
These deals mark a key step in Servier’s long-term strategy. The company has detailed its ambition to become an innovative, patient-focused and highly profitable pharma by 2030, organized around three main pillars: oncology, cardiometabolism and venous diseases, and neurology and immuno-inflammation.
