Samjin Pharmaceutical signed an agreement with Cyclica, a Canadian AI-based novel drug development platform company, for a joint research on AI novel drug development.

Under the agreement, Samjin Pharmaceutical will propose several potential drug candidates to Cyclica, and Cyclica will apply its AI-backed novel substance discovery platform technology (Ligand DesignTM, Ligand Express®) to secure most likely candidates swiftly.

“Time and expense for new drug development will be reduced significantly by using AI technology in the joint study with Cyclica,” said Samjin Pharmaceutical’s research center head Lee Soo-min.

“We aim to collaborate with leading research institutes and companies in Korea and abroad to efficiently discover and develop novel drugs through open-innovation strategy.”

Cyclica CEO Naheed Kurji said he expects to discover protein targets, which had been difficult, by combining Samjin’s novel drug development know-hows and Cyclica’s new treatment development platform.

CB Insights chose Cyclica as one of the world’s top 13 healthcare AI startups in 2020. The company is conducting joint studies with various global companies in Korea and multinational drugmakers such as Merck KGaA and AstraZeneca.