Charles River and Related Sciences Enter Multi-Program Collaboration to Pursue AI-Enabled Drug Discovery Utilizing Logica

2023-09-14

Logica, an offering from Charles River and Valo Health, will be used to discover first-in-class therapeutics against high value targets in the Related Sciences portfolio WILMINGTON, Mass. & DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) and Related Sciences (“RS”), a data science-driven drug discovery firm, today announced a multi-program collaboration agreement to apply Logica™ across several previously undrugged targets in the RS portfolio. Logica is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered drug solution that translates biological insights into optimized assets. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: Under the collaboration, RS will work closely with the Charles River and Valo Health teams to deploy Logica to discover valuable new medicines to address key unmet needs across a range of disease areas, including cancer immunotherapy, autoimmunity, and inflammatory diseases. “Partnering with the team at Related Sciences, we are excited to deploy Logica in the hunt for first-in-class therapeutics,” said Julie Frearson, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Charles River. “Logica’s unique platform, which combines AI/machine learning (ML)-enabled in silico discovery, high-powered DNA-encoded libraries, and traditional screening techniques, has the capability to accelerate the drug discovery and development pipeline, transforming a target to a candidate in just over two years.” “Across our growing portfolio, Related Sciences brings together specialized technologies and orthogonal screening approaches that can maximize our chances of discovering transformational new medicines against high value targets,” said Adam Kolom, Founder and CEO of Related Sciences. “Logica’s combination of advanced AI/ML and state-of-the-art hit finding approaches, within a unique risk-sharing business model, pairs beautifully with Related Sciences’ data science-driven, multi-technology approach to drug discovery.” Logica: Redefining Small Molecule Drug Discovery’s Gold Standard In 2022, Charles River and Valo Health launched Logica, leveraging the AI-powered Valo Opal Computational PlatformTM and Charles River’s leading preclinical expertise, providing clients with transformed drug discovery with a single integrated offering seamlessly translating targets to candidate nomination. Logica is offered as a fully managed, risk-sharing model, with most of the client cost tied to success. Logica utilizes industry-leading predictive models, chemical design, and synthesis capabilities, DNA-encoded libraries, in silico high throughput screening from Valo’s Opal Computational Platform as well as Charles River’s leading capabilities in all aspects of discovery optimization including high throughput screening, medicinal chemistry, ADME, biology, pharmacology, and ultimately safety testing and IND submission, joining together for the first time to create a computation-powered, unified target-to-candidate offering. Last year, Charles River and Flagship’s Pioneering Medicines announced an agreement to deploy Logica across a portfolio of targets with the aim of creating optimized small molecules that lead to novel therapies for unmet medical needs. About Related Sciences Related Sciences (RS) is a data science-driven drug discovery firm. RS uses a proprietary AI/ML platform to identify the best new drug discovery opportunities for every disease, assembles decentralized teams of top global researchers to guide the science, and then invests in and leads the efficient discovery of valuable new medicines via preclinical-specialized R&D platforms. RS is led by an interdisciplinary team of drug discovery, data science, and finance veterans and is backed by a luminary group of investors. About Valo Health Valo Health, Inc (Valo) is a technology company built to transform the drug discovery and development process using human-centric data and AI-driven computation. As a digitally native company, Valo aims to fully integrate human-centric data across the entire drug development lifecycle into a single unified architecture, thereby accelerating the discovery and development of life-changing drugs while simultaneously reducing the costs, time, and failure rates. The company’s Opal Computational Platform™ consists of an integrated set of capabilities designed to transform data into valuable insights that may accelerate discoveries and enable Valo to advance a robust pipeline of programs across cardiovascular-metabolic-renal, oncology, and neurodegenerative disease. Founded by Flagship Pioneering and headquartered in Boston, MA, Valo also has offices in Lexington, MA, and New York, NY. To learn more, visit . About Charles River Charles River provides essential products and services to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, government agencies and leading academic institutions around the globe accelerate their research and drug development efforts. Our dedicated employees are focused on providing clients with exactly what they need to improve and expedite the discovery, early-stage development and safe manufacture of new therapies for the patients who need them. To learn more about our unique portfolio and breadth of services, visit .