AsiaNet  87487

Standigm and SK Chemicals Repurpose FDA-approved Drug into Rheumatoid Arthritis Candidate and Apply for Patent through their Open Innovation Partnership

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Standigm Inc.("Standigm"), an AI-based drug discovery company and SK Chemicals

Co., Ltd.("SK Chemicals"), a life science and green chemicals company,

announced that they had successfully found a new arthritis indication for an

FDA-approved drug and filed a patent. This is the first successful result of

their open innovation partnership, formed in July 2019.

The collaboration is aimed at identifying novel or repurposed drug candidates

for rheumatoid arthritis, leveraging Standigm's AI-powered drug discovery

platforms: Standigm BEST(TM), Standigm Insight(TM), and Standigm ASK(TM). SK

Chemicals has shared their expertise in arthritis and validated the predicted

targets and compounds through in vitro and in vivo studies.

The compound in the patent was discovered by Standigm Insight(TM) and showed

comparable or improvements in its arthritis disease activity score than

reference drugs in arthritis mice. As the compound was already approved,

significant savings in cost and time for the new indication are expected.  

"This patent is just the beginning of many results expected from our

collaboration. We look forward to announcing AI-aided new drug candidates as

well," said Jinhan Kim, co-founder and CEO of Standigm. "Partnering with SK

Group has been incredibly productive. We are also accelerating collaboration

with SK C&C for iCLUE&ASK(TM)."

Jeonghoon Kim, Director of the R&D Center at SK Chemicals, said, "Our

successful open innovation partnership combines Standigm's advanced AI

technology and SK Chemicals' expertise in drug development be continued to

address unmet needs in treating intractable diseases."

Standigm

Standigm is an AI-driven drug discovery company. Pursuing full-stack, AI-driven

industrializing drug discovery, Standigm has achieved the automation of

molecular design workflow, DarkMolFactory(TM), and the automation effort has

been expanding to the whole drug discovery process based on StandigmAI

platforms: Standigm ASK(TM) for target discovery, Standigm BEST(TM) for lead

selection, and Standigm Insight(TM) for drug repurposing.

https://www.standigm.com

SK Chemicals

SK Chemicals(KRX: 285130) is a leading company in the fields of chemistry and

life science. SK Chemicals' life sciences business drives to pharmaceuticals

and biologics and is aimed at providing comprehensive healthcare solutions that

cover patient care from diagnosis to treatment. SK Chemicals successfully

developed the first new synthetic drug in Korea, Sunpla(R). SK Chemicals boasts

a diverse line of medicines including arthritis patch, Trast(R) and blood

circulation agent, Ginexin(R). https://www.skchemicals.com

Source: Standigm