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Nabla Bio and Takeda deepen AI-powered drug discovery partnership

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U.S. biotech startup Nabla Bio has expanded its collaboration with Japanese pharmaceutical giant Takeda, signing a new multi-year agreement to further integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the drug discovery process.

The partnership, building on an initial 2022 deal, includes upfront and research payments in the double-digit millions, with Nabla eligible for success-based milestones exceeding $1 billion. The companies will use Nabla’s proprietary Joint Atomic Model (JAM) platform to design next-generation protein-based therapeutics, including multi-specific drugs targeting hard-to-treat diseases.

Nabla CEO Surge Biswas described JAM as a system that “responds to molecular queries the way ChatGPT answers text questions,” generating custom antibody designs that meet specific biological targets. The company says its technology offers one of the fastest feedback loops in the biotech sector — only three to four weeks from computational design to laboratory testing.

Takeda’s renewed focus on scalable, AI-driven drug types follows its decision to exit cell therapy research earlier this year. The Japanese firm also recently joined a consortium with Bristol Myers Squibb to develop AI models using shared pharmaceutical data.

Nabla expects to deliver first-in-human data from its AI-designed therapeutics within one to two years, marking another milestone in the industry’s growing reliance on AI to cut development timelines and boost innovation.

Eli Lilly Unveils AI-Powered TuneLab to Speed Drug Discovery

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Eli Lilly (LLY.N) announced on Tuesday the launch of TuneLab, an artificial intelligence and machine learning platform designed to give biotech companies access to advanced drug discovery models trained on decades of Lilly’s research data.

The platform represents more than $1 billion in proprietary data investments and aims to level the playing field by letting smaller biotech firms access the same AI-driven tools Lilly scientists use internally.

“Lilly TuneLab was created to be an equalizer so that smaller companies can access some of the same AI capabilities used every day by Lilly scientists,” said Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer.

Two biotech firms — Circle Pharma and insitro — are already early partners. Circle will apply TuneLab’s tools to cancer drug development, while insitro will contribute new AI models for small molecule discovery, enhancing TuneLab’s capabilities.

The move reflects a broader industry shift toward AI in research and development. Analysts at Jefferies forecast that AI-related R&D spend could reach $30–40 billion by 2040, as drugmakers adopt AI for discovery, testing, and reducing reliance on animal studies, in line with FDA goals.

TuneLab operates on datasets covering hundreds of thousands of unique molecules. In exchange for access, biotech partners provide their own training data, further strengthening the platform’s predictive power and long-term value.