European Union awards InterAx with Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2 for the integration of machine learning into the InterAx systems biology platform for drug discovery
Villigen – Switzerland, Brussels – Belgium, 25th September 2019 Villigen
InterAx Biotech AG today announces the support of the highly competitive Phase 2 European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program for Small to Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) for its technology platform PICARD with a total project volume of 2.49M EUR. With the received funding, InterAx will expand both its technology development and boost its commercialization and market penetration efforts.
Aurélien Rizk, CTO of InterAx Biotech explains: “The InterAx technology is a disruptive drug candidate-discovery platform that integrates a mathematical description of biological systems into drug exploration. This so-called systems biology approach is a first-of-its-kind technology that allows for advanced drug candidate selection. PICARD will allow us to now design lead molecules by integrating artificial intelligence into our systems biology platform. By doing this, we will be able to explore new chemical space and accelerate the discovery process of advanced lead molecules targeting G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs).”
As for the commercial aspects of PICARD, InterAx will get support by the EC to further implement its commercialization plan. Rizk adds: “We have already entered the market with several customer projects and know that the PICARD platform will bring even more value to our Biotech and Pharma partners.”
The team thanks the European Commission for the trust received.
The European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program supports breakthrough innovation projects with a market-creating potential. The SME instrument boosts fast company growth and market-creating innovation thanks to staged funding and ramped up business acceleration services.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 880322.
For more information read the latest interview with Aurélien Rizk by Eugen Stamm.
