AMD Ventures into AI drug discovery with US $20 million investment in Absci

USA – Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has taken a significant step into the world of artificial intelligence-powered drug discovery, following the lead of its competitor, NVIDIA.

The chipmaker announced a US $20 million investment in Absci, a biotech company based in Vancouver, Washington, as part of a broader agreement to utilize AMD’s chips and software for Absci’s drug discovery processes.

This partnership will power Absci’s generative AI (GenAI)-based biologic drug design platform, which has already attracted collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca, MSD, and Almirall.

While AMD has only recently ventured into the pharmaceutical sector, NVIDIA has been active in healthcare for over a decade.

NVIDIA launched its own GenAI platform for drug discovery, BioNeMo, in 2022 and has steadily expanded its presence, including a notable partnership with Genentech in 2023 to develop the Roche subsidiary’s “lab-in-a-loop” concept.

NVIDIA has since formed additional alliances with other biotech companies working at the intersection of biology and computation.

AMD’s investment in Absci reflects what the company describes as the “growing demand for innovative AI applications in drug discovery.”

The collaboration aims to accelerate Absci’s mission of developing better biologic drugs faster by leveraging AMD’s high-performance AI solutions.

These solutions promise exceptional performance, reduced infrastructure costs, and faster innovation cycles for complex biological modeling.

Absci is currently working with AstraZeneca on the development of a novel antibody-based drug targeting cancer.

Using AI, the company aims to design a candidate with enhanced properties, such as higher target affinity, improved safety, and easier manufacturability.

Absci’s proprietary Integrated Drug Creation platform combines wet-lab assays with machine-learning models.

By generating billions of protein-protein interaction data points, the platform enables the creation of novel designs for antibodies and other biologic drugs.

The platform’s efficiency is striking—it can screen billions of cells weekly, allowing researchers to progress from an AI-generated drug design to a validated candidate in just six weeks.

This capability sets Absci apart in the rapidly evolving field of AI-driven drug discovery.

Mark Papermaster, AMD’s Chief Technology Officer, highlighted the synergy between Absci’s groundbreaking AI-driven approach and AMD’s high-performance computing solutions, which are specifically designed for demanding AI workloads.

Meanwhile, Absci’s CEO, Sean McClain, expressed excitement about the partnership, noting that AMD’s technology will accelerate the development of next-generation antibody therapeutics.

Further details about this collaboration are expected to be revealed at the upcoming JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco next week.

McClain emphasized the potential of this partnership to revolutionize the future of drug discovery, leveraging AI and high-performance computing to streamline the development of innovative therapeutics.