Machine-learning drug development company Insitro has inked three agreements with Eli Lilly for new medicines for metabolic diseases. But the deal is a little different compared to many recent deals between burgeoning artificial intelligence upstarts and established pharma giants: After identifying drug candidates, Insitro will be responsible for commercializing the drugs, and Lilly will be eligible for milestones and royalties.
Even though the company has never brought drugs into the clinic before, Insitro is betting on itself. Since the company’s technology platform extends to clinical trial insights, CEO Daphne Koller thinks it will give Insitro the edge over another company performing their clinical trials. But the move is a selfish one, too.
“We’re a data company,” she told STAT in an interview. “AI is only as good as the data that you feed it, and data from your own patients is probably the most precious commodity out there. And so we wanted to be able to have that.”
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