Laboratoires Pierre Fabre and XtalPi (XtalPi Holdings Limited, 2228.HK) announced an agreement to collaborate on the discovery of novel clinical candidates across a number of research programs in oncology, potentially dermatology, and rare diseases.

Division of Work

Under the agreement, XtalPi will use its integrated AI capabilities and robotics platform to de novo design and deliver novel small molecule therapeutics against undisclosed targets.

Laboratoires Pierre Fabre will contribute its expertise in disease biology, discovery, translational research, and clinical development to select and advance the most promising compounds. The company will also be responsible for subsequent clinical and commercial development.

Focus on Hard-to-Drug Targets

The collaboration reflects the parties' shared interest in exploring challenging and historically hard-to-drug targets, an area the companies associate with significant unmet medical need and substantial opportunity in innovative drug discovery.

For Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, the agreement is described as a strategic addition to its R&D roadmap, strengthening its drug discovery capabilities. It also advances XtalPi's efforts to apply AI and robotics to de novo drug discovery. Together, the companies aim to accelerate the identification of high-quality clinical candidates across multiple research programs in oncology and potentially other therapeutic areas.

Executive Comments

Raymond Zheng, Head of Integrated Drug Discovery at XtalPi, said: "We are honored to enter into this collaboration with Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, a respected international pharmaceutical company. This partnership combines XtalPi's AI and robotics capabilities with Laboratoires Pierre Fabre's established therapeutic development expertise. We aim to advance promising preclinical candidates to benefit patients with unmet medical needs."

Francesco Hofmann, Head of Pharma Research and Development at Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, said: "Partnering with XtalPi represents an important milestone for us. Leveraging the expertise of XtalPi on AI to accelerate the delivery of high-quality clinical candidates for multiple targets is a critical addition to our R&D Data and AI roadmap and to our discovery engine".

Financial Terms

The agreement includes an upfront payment, multiple milestone payments and downstream economic participation. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.