JW Pharmaceutical partners with US-based Tempus AI to advance anti-cancer drug development

JW Pharmaceutical said Tuesday that it is partnering with Tempus AI, an Illinois-based technology company specializing in AI-based precision medicine, to accelerate the development of anti-cancer drugs using real-world data (RWD) and biological modeling. 

The collaboration aims to enhance hypothesis generation and rapidly validate the efficacy and safety of new drug candidates in oncology research, thereby improving efficiency across various cancer indications.

“Tempus is assembling an organoid panel tailored to specific cancer indications to evaluate preclinical candidates that closely reflect the characteristics of actual patients,” said Ryan Fukushima, chief operating officer of Tempus AI.

He emphasized the potential of this innovative approach to advance early research by evaluating select preclinical candidates.

JW Pharmaceutical plans to utilize Tempus AI’s biological modeling platform and a comprehensive panel of pan-indication and multimodal data, including clinical records and pathological images, along with patient-derived organoid models. This strategy aims to evaluate its new drug candidates and validate biomarkers that can predict treatment responses and screen early pipeline assets, with the goal of developing personalized anti-cancer therapies.

Tempus AI offers organoid models derived from cancer patient tumors, each reflecting the unique biology of an individual tumor, according to a company official. These models are linked to Tempus’s extensive multimodal dataset through its next-generation sequencing assay, xT, enabling the projection of organoid screening results onto broader patient populations and holding “the potential to unlock even richer multimodal insights,” the official explained.

Through this collaboration, both companies expect to predict clinical trial outcomes for new drug candidates more accurately by comparing organoid research results with real patient data, ultimately developing effective personalized anti-cancer drugs.

Park Chan-hee, chief technology officer of JW Pharmaceutical, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership with Tempus AI, noting that it is the “first of its kind” in Korea. He added that this collaboration represents a “significant turning point” in the development of new drugs using real-world clinical data in the country.