Questions? +1 (202) 335-3939 Login
Trusted News Since 1995
A service for auto industry professionals · Tuesday, May 20, 2025 · 814,456,104 Articles · 3+ Million Readers

VantAI Expands Strategic Collaboration with Blueprint Medicines to Advance Induced Proximity Drug Discovery

May 20, 2025 --

VantAI, a leader in generative AI and proximity-based therapeutics, announced today that it has entered into a second expansion of its collaboration and license agreement with Blueprint Medicines, a global biopharmaceutical company, to prioritize targets and design and advance novel therapies for areas of high medical need. This new amendment further expands the companies’ successful 2022 collaboration by including additional drug target programs, and further underscores significant validation of VantAI’s technology by industry leaders.

The expanded collaboration aims to push the boundaries of induced proximity drug discovery by pursuing targets and mechanisms that have historically been considered “undruggable” or out of reach for traditional small-molecule or biologic therapeutics.

Induced proximity therapeutics—encompassing molecular glues, heterobifunctional degraders, and other protein–protein interaction modulators—are specialized small molecules designed to rewire cellular circuitry at the protein level, and function by harnessing or blocking naturally occurring processes (e.g., protein degradation, stabilization, aggregation, re-localization, etc.) to treat disease. This approach opens up new therapeutic possibilities beyond occupancy-based inhibitors.

This collaboration will be powered by VantAI’s recently announced foundation model Neo-1, which for the first time enables AI-based generation of molecular glues and other PPI modifying compounds. This advance, introduced in March 2025, uniquely positions VantAI to accelerate discovery in induced proximity therapeutics where such capabilities are necessary to solve what is an extremely complex “three-body problem” (i.e., two proteins and a ligand).

By uniting deep biological data with advanced AI-driven drug design, VantAI and Blueprint Medicines anticipate more rapid development of innovative candidates with novel mechanisms of action and best-in-class potential.

Combining Blueprint Medicines' proven track record of designing and developing innovative therapies that target root causes of disease, and VantAI's leadership position in AI, the collaboration seeks to harness engineered protein-protein interfaces to unlock therapeutics with superior properties and novel capabilities, opening new options for challenging medical needs.

“Blueprint Medicines is a truly forward-thinking biotech company, composed of stellar scientists who understand how data-centric methods and AI can transform the drug discovery process,” said Dr. Zach Carpenter, Chief Executive Officer of VantAI. “Their scientific vision and appreciation for new types of data and methodology make them a highly collaborative and effective partner. Together we are excited to push the boundaries of induced proximity and unlock crucial new targets, which may ultimately deliver transformative treatments to patients.”

“We are excited to expand our collaboration with VantAI, leveraging their innovative technology platform and unique insights into protein structure and function,” said Percy Carter, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Blueprint Medicines. “By working closely with VantAI, we look forward to accelerating early discovery activities for targeted protein degraders and advancing our integrated research approach across multiple treatment modalities.”

Under the terms of this expanded agreement, VantAI will be eligible to receive up to $1.67 billion in contingent milestone payments, based on the achievement of research, development, regulatory and sales milestones across four combined target programs, in addition to tiered royalties in the mid-single digits on future net sales of certain products arising from the collaboration. Of the total contingent payments, up to $1.4 billion would be sales milestones and up to $270 million would be research, development and regulatory milestones. Blueprint Medicines also maintains the option, at its discretion, to expand the collaboration further to additional target programs.

About VantAI

VantAI is pioneering a transformative approach to drug discovery by illuminating the dynamic networks of protein interactions that drive biological function. Leveraging our groundbreaking NeoLink structural proteomics platform and next generation foundation models, VantAI generates unprecedented interactomics data at scale, revealing how molecules connect, interact, and shape cellular behavior—in 3D. Alongside a robust and mechanistically differentiated internal pipeline, VantAI collaborates extensively with external partners to accelerate the delivery of innovative therapies. VantAI’s cross-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers is uniquely positioned to unlock novel therapeutic strategies that induce, modulate, or block protein interfaces—making previously undruggable targets accessible and providing powerful new ways to target diseases by rewiring cellular circuitry. On March 21, 2025, VantAI launched Neo-1, the first AI model to rewire molecular protein interactions by unifying structure prediction and generation for therapeutic design. For more information, please visit www.vant.ai.

Powered by EIN Presswire

Distribution channels:

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.

Submit your press release