Ono Pharmaceutical has signed a drug discovery partnership with Aitia that will use the US company’s causal AI to build virtual models of neurological disease and point toward new therapeutic targets. Aitia’s REFS engine will model neurological conditions as Gemini Digital Twins and flag target and biomarker candidates. Should Aitia propose a target, Ono holds a sole worldwide option to pursue it through development and commercialization.
Gemini Digital Twins are computational representations of disease built from patient clinical data and multiomic information. Aitia says its approach infers causal relationships rather than the correlations conventional AI models find, which matters for neurology where genetic, developmental, neural network, immune and environmental factors interact in complex ways.
Aitia co-founder and CEO Colin Hill said the field has few effective treatments for most neurological diseases largely because their biological causes remain poorly understood. Working with Ono’s development teams to build comprehensive in silico twins of these diseases should uncover validated targets and drive rational discovery, he said.
For Ono, the collaboration extends a neurology push that already includes clinical-stage programs. Seishi Katsumata, a corporate officer at the Osaka-based pharma, said the company believes the technology will speed delivery of innovative medicines to patients.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
