Syntekabio Signs Third Active Compound Discovery Contract with US TPD-Focused Biotech

Syntekabio announced on December 18 that it had signed its third contract for the discovery of active compounds with a Boston-based biotechnology company specializing in Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) on December 16.

This contract follows two previous agreements, and is particularly significant as the client company has expressed a strong commitment to continued collaboration. The latest contract is based on performance, making it even more meaningful.

Syntekabio's proprietary AI drug discovery platform, DeepMatcher™, is a drug development platform that encompasses both synthetic and antibody drugs. Within this, the SM-ARS platform for synthetic drug development utilizes a language model to perform virtual screening and fine-tuning on a library of 10 billion compounds. The key feature of this platform is its ability to screen all 10 billion compounds in just two hours. Through this, more than 100 iterative runs using generative AI can be performed until active compounds are identified, significantly expanding the potential to discover active compounds for new targets where none have previously been found.

The client, a TPD-focused biotech company, is a leading Nasdaq-listed company in the TPD field with a market capitalization of 9 trillion won. Generally, TPD consists of a ligand (warhead) that binds to the target protein, a ligand (binder) that binds to the E3 ligase, and a linker that connects the two proteins. Through this contract, Syntekabio will be responsible for discovering the ligand (warhead) that binds to the target protein.

In particular, TPD ligands (warheads) are known to be a challenging area for discovery. The confirmation that even such difficult targets can be identified is being recognized as a practical validation case for language model-based AI drug development platforms. This is expected to provide a new paradigm for areas where it has been difficult to generate active compounds.

TPD is attracting attention as a next-generation drug development platform that eliminates disease-causing proteins, and major global pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Amgen, and Merck are making bold investments in this field. According to UK market research firm Roots Analysis, the TPD market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 32%, reaching approximately 694 million dollars (about 940 billion won) by 2035. In fact, Pfizer signed a contract worth a total of 2.05 billion dollars (about 2.36 trillion won) with a US TPD company in 2021.

A Syntekabio representative stated, "Recently, our 3BM-GPT technology was published in the international journal MDPI Molecules, further strengthening the scientific basis of our AI drug development platform," adding, "Through DeepMatcher™, we can derive active compounds with more diverse structures and confirm their binding specificity to targets." The representative continued, "Even for targets with limited structural information, optimization is possible, and we expect to overcome the limitations of existing AI-based small molecule drug development methods."