Insilico Medicine (3696.HK), a clinical-stage drug discovery and development company powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI), today announced a strategic research partnership with ASKA Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“ASKA”), a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and gynecology. The partnership aims to leverage Insilico’s proprietary AI-driven target identification engine, PandaOmics, to identify novel therapeutic targets with high potential for drug development for challenging gynecological diseases such as endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and adenomyosis.
Gynecological diseases have long been challenged by difficult diagnoses, limited treatment options, and a significant disease burden, affecting millions of patients worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that endometriosis affects approximately 190 million women worldwide, while uterine fibroids and adenomyosis affect many more demographics, often co-occurring, and have a major impact on women’s reproductive health.
This collaboration will combine ASKA’s deep expertise in gynecological care with Insilico Medicine’s advanced AI-driven bioanalytical capabilities to address key unmet medical needs that impact hundreds of millions of patients worldwide and accelerate the development of innovative solutions. Under this partnership, Insilico will leverage PandaOmics to identify and explore disease hypotheses, and ASKA will validate AI-predicted therapeutic targets with high translational potential.
The project will be led by the Target Discovery team, including Dr. Frank Pun, Head of Insilico Medicine’s Hong Kong location. The team recently announced Target Identification Pro (TargetPro), an AI-driven framework that accelerates therapeutic target discovery by integrating multimodal data into disease-specific models. By identifying context-dependent predictive patterns, TargetPro outperforms existing target identification models in accurately predicting which targets are most likely to progress to the clinical stage. This framework goes beyond validation of established clinical targets to nominate novel, high-potential candidates optimized for immediate preclinical validation.
I am honored to be able to lead this collaboration with ASKA. Preclinical validation of endometriosis targets previously specified by AI demonstrated that AI can reveal actionable insights within the complex biological context of women’s disease. We look forward to using our latest disease-specific TargetPro models to help ASKA develop next-generation treatments for women around the world. ”
Dr. Frank Pang, Insilico Medicine Hong Kong Site Director
Dr. Shuzo Watanabe, Director of Insilico Medicine, said, “We are very pleased to announce our partnership with Insilico Medicine. At Asuka Pharmaceutical, we aim to accelerate the drug discovery process by leveraging AI at every stage of research and development. Through this partnership with Insilico Medicine, we hope to quickly identify high-quality, highly promising drug targets.”
Notably, ASKA has been using Insilico’s AI software for a long time. Through this expanded partnership, Insilico and ASKA will apply these proven AI techniques to navigate the complex biological landscape of endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and adenomyosis, providing a clear roadmap for next-generation treatments, and further highlighting goals aligned with both parties’ shared commitment to driving innovation in women’s health.
