AstraZeneca's $555 million investment in CRISPR AI

AstraZeneca and San Francisco-based Algen Biotechnologies signed a $555 million licensing agreement, giving AstraZeneca the only right to create and market gene treatments found using Algen's AI-powered gene-editing platform. The specifics: AlgenBrain, a proprietary AI platform from Algen, maps gene function to illness progression at the single-cell level using sophisticated CRISPR gene modification. The business, which combined state-of-the-art CRISPR gene editing with AI-driven discovery tools, was created out of Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna's UC Berkeley lab. AstraZeneca will have the sole authority to create and market any treatments derived from the partnership's chosen targets. As part of its $80 billion revenue plan by 2030, the acquisition helps AstraZeneca achieve its strategic objective of growing its cell and gene therapy pipeline. Pharma is making billion-dollar wagers that AI would reveal biological discoveries that humans would overlook, thereby resolving the difficult economics of drug development, which include 90% failure rates and ten-year schedules. However, in human clinical trials, where biology has the last word, computer forecasts still need to make it through.