PHARMA: PARTNERSHIP TO TAKE GENOMICS APPROACH TO DISCOVERY
Illumina, Deerfield Ink Drug Development Deal
Monday, May 16, 2022
On May 5, the San Diego DNA sequencing giant announced a partnership with New York-based healthcare investment management firm Deerfield Management to apply a genetic-led approach to develop novel therapies for diseases with unmet medical needs.
Under the terms of the partnership with Deerfield, Illumina will provide a DNA-driven target discovery platform alongside its AI-powered genome interpretation software while Deerfield will provide expertise in translational science and help guide new drug candidates through preclinical testing.
“This partnership serves as a new company (NewCo) creation engine where Illumina and Deerfield will jointly decide whether to progress validated targets into pre-clinical development, at which point a NewCo will be formed,” said Illumina CTO Alex Aravanis.
“It is a co-ownership model that gives both Illumina and Deerfield equity in the NewCo, generating drug target assets with long-term optionality that includes royalties if a drug reaches the market,” Aravanis added. “The partnership is openly structured where both parties are aligned in near and long-term success.”
Improving Discovery
Currently, drug discovery lacks a strong success rate, with 90% of therapies failing in development.
Goswami pointed out that Deerfield VP of Genetics and Genomics Matt Nelson’s paper published in “Nature” supported using genetic data to select the best targets and indications in discovery and can improve success rates, speed to market, and cost in the development of new drugs.
“Our partnership will work to create efficiencies across the drug development process, through data and AI, and change how we can bring novel therapeutics to market, overcoming the hurdles traditional models have failed to overcome,” Aravanis added.
Illumina and Deerfield plan to identify therapeutic targets using Illumina’s genetically driven target discovery platform built with Illumina Connected Analytics and AI-driven genome interpretation solutions.
Partnership Goals
Deerfield has set a goal for the second half of the year to come together with some outputs in how the targets will be selected and begin funding them.
“Our hope is to have multiple programs that we are funding and moving through the discovery and development phase,” Flynn said, and cited cancer therapeutic company Nuvalent as a recent example of a Deerfield company advancing into the clinical phase.
Aravanis said this partnership with Deerfield builds on Illumina’s “growing efforts in drug discovery and pointed to similar collaborations – one recently launched with Belgium-based Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson and another announced earlier in the year with Nashville Biosciences.
“We’re using our high-quality genomic data and world-class AI and machine learning capabilities to help pharma drive more efficient drug development,” Aravanis said. “Various demographics or populations may have distinct genetic variations that can affect the treatment of disease, and as these datasets become more diverse, we can also support more effective drug development by improving data equity, which will have positive implications across precision medicine, from development to screening, selection and monitoring.”
Illumina, Inc.
CEO: Francis deSouza
Headquarters: San Diego
Business: DNA sequencers and assays
Stock: ILMN (NASDAQ)
Revenue: $4.517 billion (2021)
Employees: 7,825
Website:
Notable: Illumina is the world’s leading genomic sequencing company.