AI Proteins has signed a research collaboration and licensing agreement with Astellas Innovation Management, an affiliate of Astellas Pharma, to discover miniprotein-based drug candidates against multiple undisclosed targets. The agreement could generate more than $400 million for AI Proteins through upfront and milestone payments, in addition to royalties on sales of any resulting medicines.

Under the collaboration, the Boston-based biotechnology company will use its artificial intelligence-driven platform to design and optimize de novo miniproteins — molecules engineered from scratch rather than adapted from naturally occurring proteins. The approach is intended to produce candidates with targeted binding capabilities and tailored molecular properties.

Astellas will receive exclusive worldwide rights to therapeutic candidates generated through the program. Once candidates are ready to move forward, the pharmaceutical company will take responsibility for further development, regulatory submissions and commercialization.

AI Proteins will receive an upfront payment to support the design and optimization work. Additional payments will be tied to the achievement of specified development and commercial milestones, with royalties due on net sales of products that reach the market.

Chris Bahl, PhD, founder, president and CEO of AI Proteins, says designing proteins from first principles allows researchers to build molecules around specific therapeutic requirements, rather than relying solely on biological structures that evolved naturally. He describes Astellas’ drug development experience as an important component in moving potential candidates toward clinical use.

For Astellas, the agreement adds an early-stage discovery partnership focused on computational protein engineering. Morten Sogaard, senior vice president of Astellas Innovation Lab, says the collaboration aligns with the company’s strategy of working with emerging technologies to broaden its research pipeline and identify new therapeutic opportunities.

The deal brings together AI Proteins’ computational design capabilities and Astellas’ expertise in drug development, with the partners aiming to generate candidates for targets selected by Astellas. The companies have not disclosed the targets or provided a development timeline.

The agreement highlights continued pharmaceutical industry interest in applying artificial intelligence to early drug discovery, including the design of engineered proteins that may offer alternatives to conventional biologic approaches.

For more information, please visit aiproteins.com.