Collaboration Overview
UBE Corporation and FRONTEO, Inc. have signed a memorandum of understanding for joint research to out-license drug discovery seeds to pharmaceutical companies. The collaboration combines FRONTEO's AI capabilities with UBE's expertise in compound generation and optimization.
Research Timeline
The companies plan to determine the target disease area by December 2025 and begin research in January 2026. This partnership aims to streamline the drug discovery process, reducing R&D risks and expanding pharmaceutical pipelines.
Addressing Industry Challenges
The increasing complexity of diseases has made identifying new target molecules difficult, leading to a global challenge of viable drug target depletion. This joint research aligns with Japanese government initiatives to strengthen drug discovery capabilities and aims to bridge the gap between research output and economic impact.
Roles and Contributions
FRONTEO will utilize its Drug Discovery AI Factory to explore unreported relationships between diseases and target molecules. UBE will focus on generating and optimizing compounds that act on these target molecules, contributing to a more efficient drug discovery model.
