BenevolentAI, AstraZeneca: drug discovery partnership

AI-centric drug discovery specialist BenevolentAI has announced that AstraZeneca has selected an additional novel target for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) for its drug development portfolio. This is the third novel target from the collaboration that has been identified using the Benevolent Platform across two disease areas (IPF and chronic kidney disease) and subsequently validated and selected for portfolio entry by the pharmaceutical company.

Maria Belvis (senior vice president, and head of research and early development for respiratory and immunology with AstraZeneca) said, “IPF is a devastating disease with median survival of around three years and there is a serious need for better treatment options. At AstraZeneca, we are continuously striving to improve our R&D productivity in order to quickly bring potentially innovative treatments to complex diseases such as IPF. Our partnership with BenevolentAI furthers our commitment and we are proud to deliver a second novel target for IPF to our portfolio​.”