AnHorn Medicines, a Taiwan-based start-up, announced on 20 February that it has teamed up with Czech start-up AI ffinity, Switzerland's NexMR and the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) through a referral from Taiwan Capital to jointly research and develop prostate cancer drug candidates using artificial intelligence. This sets a precedent for R&D cooperation between Taiwanese pharmaceutical start-ups and EU partners and top research institutions.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. In Taiwan, it ranks 5th among the top 10 cancers. The incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer in Europe and the USA are much higher than in Taiwan. In the US, for example, the incidence rate is eight times higher than in Taiwan, and the mortality rate is twice as high.
With existing first-line oral hormone therapies, 25% of patients do not respond and become drug resistant over time, requiring chemotherapy or becoming incurable. In addition to drug resistance, many of these patients lack a specific structure of the androgen receptor protein, making them untreatable with existing drugs.
The rapid development of generative AI in recent years can accelerate the understanding of protein structure, find suitable targets, and assist in the design of corresponding drug molecular structures. For example, AnHorn Medicines, which uses small molecule drugs to regulate protein degradation, has become an important area for novel application of AI in drug discovery and development.
Protein degraders offer the advantages of convenient drug delivery, ease of manufacture and the therapeutic specificity of biologics. Although no protein degraders have yet reached the market, many international manufacturers have acquired biotech companies specialising in these drugs or signed international licensing agreements.
AnHorn Medicines has also completed series A led by Taiwan Capital, which has invested in companies developing protein degraders, joined by TAIAN (台安生物科技), Industrial Technology Investment Corporation (ITIC), and THE (Hongtai Electric), (ITIC), THE (宏泰電工), Black Marble Capital Management Co. (萬豐資本), Rafael Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (兆豐創業投資) and Sunplus Technology Co (凌陽科技).
Dr Lin Chu-Chiang (林助強), founder and president of AnHorn Medicines, noted that this collaboration has proven to have market potential. If they are able to discover targets that respond to drug candidates, they will be able to address the challenges faced by protein degraders and expand drug indications. The prostate cancer market is estimated to be worth more than $16 billion by 2027.
AnHorn Medicines is already well ahead of the game and the team has successfully developed two new compounds for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia and prostate cancer, for which patents have been filed worldwide.
Lin explains that the AI-4D NMR technology, provided by partners AI ffinity and NexMR, can quickly determine the optimal binding structure of the target protein and the drug, so that the drug can achieve optimal potency and selectivity, and develop new drugs that are better than existing ones. AnHorn's partners will provide relevant research to accelerate the design and validation of subsequent drug development.
Taiwan has been engaging Central and Eastern European countries in trade and investment. This collaboration is the first of its kind in the field of drug discovery and development through a referral by Taiwan Capital. "Taiwan Capital is very pleased to be able to contribute to the success of the development of new drugs and to bridge Taiwanese companies with partnership opportunities. Dr Jerome Shen, Taiwan Capital General Partner of Bio Fund, added.
"AnHorn Medicines is one of the few companies in Taiwan that combines pharmaceutical R&D and information technology. With big pharmaceutical companies now competing for protein degraders, AnHorn is pleased to work with Czech and Swiss partners with the support of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan Capital; we look forward to accelerating our drug development to benefit prostate cancer patients together with our strategic partners," said Lin.
