Source: Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Pioneer of AI medicine recursion medicine On Wednesday, it said one of its experimental treatments had reached a key milestone.
Recursion uses an artificial intelligence-powered drug discovery platform to identify areas of biology for solid tumor and lymphoma treatments, match them with drug candidates, and launch studies faster. We were able to proceed through the entire process to obtain regulatory approval for the Over 18 months.
“I think this is a very exciting proof point not only for us as a company, but for the tech bio industry as well,” CEO and co-founder Chris Gibson said in an interview with CNBC.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved an investigational new drug application for a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of an experimental drug candidate known as REC-1245. The company said the potential market for this therapy could be more than 100,000 patients in the United States and European Union.
The trial will evaluate the safety and tolerability of REC-1245 and is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year. The company said Phase 1 data for the dose-escalation portion of the study could be completed by the end of next year.
The drug will target RBM39, a well-known protein known as CDK12 for treating advanced cancers rich in biomarkers such as ovarian, prostate, breast and pancreatic cancers. Recursion said it appears to be functionally similar to markers that are commonly used but are difficult to target.
“What’s really interesting about this particular recursive program is that this small molecule and new target came from what is basically the equivalent of a Google search, which is this huge map of biology that we’ve already built. I think so,” Gibson said. A large dataset created by Recursion over the past 11 years.
“This is the first program that came out of that,” he continued. “This is the first program to really take advantage of many of the new tools we’ve built in one unit.”
There is much hope that artificial intelligence will significantly speed up drug discovery and reduce costs by eliminating some of the time-consuming trial and error involved in screening and selecting drug candidates. But investors want to know whether the reality lives up to the hype.
Regression share from the beginning of the year to the present
Recursion, which counts Nvidia as an investor, expects the company’s stock price to fall 38% in 2024. But the stock is still more than 60% below its 52-week high reached in late February.
The company plans to merge with a fellow AI drug discovery company. ExcienciaThis makes even more data available. The deal is expected to close early next year.
According to FactSet, the majority of analysts rate Recursion stock as a hold, while two analysts rate it as a buy. The average analyst price target is $10.14, implying a 64% return.