Phenomic AI has maintained a relatively low profile since its launch in October 2020 with an initial funding of $6 million. However, the company is now gearing up for a more active year in 2024 following a new collaboration that has emerged.
Teaming up with Boehringer Ingelheim, a partnership has been established for target identification, with over \(500 million at stake, including an upfront cash payment of \)9 million. Phenomic CEO, Girish Aakalu, Ph.D., revealed in an interview with Fierce Biotech that the biotech company has not disclosed the specific number of targets involved in the collaboration, emphasizing that the terms are dependent on successful delivery.
The focus of this collaboration will be on the tumor stroma, a complex network of connective tissue crucial for maintaining tumor integrity. Both Phenomic and Boehringer believe that targeting specific sites within the stroma could lead to innovative cancer therapies by disrupting the tumor’s support system and its interaction with the immune system.
Phenomic is banking on its single-cell RNA computing platform, known as scTx, to unlock these targets. Aakalu highlighted that the platform offers detailed insights into the stroma’s biology, leveraging substantial statistical power to identify potential therapeutic targets and facilitate the development of new drugs.
With a dataset encompassing approximately 24 million cells, Phenomic conducts rigorous testing using a range of in-house in vitro and in vivo assays to validate and contextualize the identified targets for Boehringer.
While target identification collaborations mark just the beginning of Phenomic’s endeavors, the company is also progressing its internal drug candidate directed at CTHRC1, a gene associated with solid tumors. By venturing into drug development, Phenomic joins the league of AI and machine learning companies such as Recursion, Exscientia, and Benevolent AI.
Aakalu expressed the company’s ambition to evolve into a therapeutics company with a robust platform capable of aiding others in the field. Despite the mixed track record of some AI companies in clinical settings, Aakalu emphasized the importance of validating targets and molecules generated through machine learning via experimentation.
Looking ahead, Phenomic plans to unveil more details about its pipeline in 2024, including additional partnerships similar to the recent collaboration with Boehringer. While the company is not actively seeking funding at the moment, Aakalu hinted at potential fundraising endeavors in the near future.
