عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

AstraZeneca Teams Up with AI Firm to Develop Cancer Drug

The offices of British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca PLC in Macclesfield, England, on July 21, 2020. (Paul Ellis/AFP)
The offices of British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca PLC in Macclesfield, England, on July 21, 2020. (Paul Ellis/AFP)
TT
20
TT

AstraZeneca Teams Up with AI Firm to Develop Cancer Drug

The offices of British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca PLC in Macclesfield, England, on July 21, 2020. (Paul Ellis/AFP)
The offices of British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca PLC in Macclesfield, England, on July 21, 2020. (Paul Ellis/AFP)

Anglo-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca has signed a deal worth up to $247 million with US artificial intelligence (AI) biologics firm Absci to design an antibody to fight cancer, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The collaboration aims to harness Absci's AI technology for large-scale protein analysis to find a viable oncology therapy, a leading focus of AstraZeneca, the report said. It did not say what kind of cancer they plan to target.

Absci and AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a Reuters requests for comment.

The deal includes an upfront fee for Absci, research and development funding and milestone payments, as well as royalties on any product sales, the newspaper said.

Sean McClain, Absci’s founder and chief executive, was quoted as saying the application of engineering principles to drug discovery improved the potential of success and reduced time spent in development.

Absci applies generative artificial intelligence to design optimal drug candidates based on target affinity, safety, manufacturability and other traits.

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Private European Aerospace Startup Completes 1st Test Flight of Orbital Launch Vehicle

In this photo taken from video provided by Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media, Isar Aerospace test rocket "Spectrum" explodes felling back down after the launch at Andoya Spaceport in Nordmela, on Andøya island, Norway, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media via AP)
In this photo taken from video provided by Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media, Isar Aerospace test rocket "Spectrum" explodes felling back down after the launch at Andoya Spaceport in Nordmela, on Andøya island, Norway, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media via AP)
TT
20
TT

Private European Aerospace Startup Completes 1st Test Flight of Orbital Launch Vehicle

In this photo taken from video provided by Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media, Isar Aerospace test rocket "Spectrum" explodes felling back down after the launch at Andoya Spaceport in Nordmela, on Andøya island, Norway, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media via AP)
In this photo taken from video provided by Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media, Isar Aerospace test rocket "Spectrum" explodes felling back down after the launch at Andoya Spaceport in Nordmela, on Andøya island, Norway, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media via AP)

A rocket by a private European aerospace company launched from Norway on Sunday and crashed into the sea 30 seconds later.
Despite the short test flight, Isar Aerospace said that it successfully completed the first test flight of its orbital launch vehicle by launching its Spectrum rocket from the island of Andøya in northern Norway.
The 28-meter-long (92-foot-long) Spectrum is a two-stage launch vehicle specifically designed to put small and medium satellites into orbit. The rocket lifted off from the pad at 12:30 p.m. (1030 GMT) Sunday and flew for about a half-minute before the flight was terminated, The Associated Press quoted Isar as saying.
“This allowed the company to gather a substantial amount of flight data and experience to apply on future missions,” Isar said in a statement. “After the flight was terminated at T+30 seconds, the launch vehicle fell into the sea in a controlled manner.”
Video from the launch shows the rocket taking off from the pad, flying into the air and then coming back down to crash into the sea in a fiery explosion.
The launch was subject to various factors, including weather and safety, and Sunday's liftoff followed a week of poor conditions, including a scrubbed launch on March 24 because of unfavorable winds, and on Saturday for weather restrictions.
“Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success,” Daniel Metzler, Isar’s chief executive and co-founder, said in the statement. “We had a clean liftoff, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our Flight Termination System.”
The company had largely ruled out the possibility of the rocket reaching orbit on its first complete flight, saying that it would consider a 30-second flight a success. Isar Aerospace aims to collect as much data and experience as possible on the first integrated test of all the systems on its in-house-developed launch vehicle.
Isar Aerospace is separate from the European Space Agency, or ESA, which is funded by its 23 member states.
“Success to get off the pad, and lots of data already obtained. I am sure @isaraerospace will learn a lot," ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher posted on X. "Rocket launch is hard. Never give up, move forward with even more energy!”