Axcelead Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Tomoyuki Fujisawa, hereafter Axcelead) and FRONTEO Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Masahiro Morimoto, hereafter FRONTEO) We are pleased to announce that we have signed a contract for the joint project "Druggable Target 1000" to analyze the potential of target molecules in drug development.

 

　The development of new drugs can be broadly divided into three processes: searching for target molecules that are candidates for drug discovery, non-clinical studies using animals, and clinical trials that actually administer to humans to verify their effects and effects.Of the candidate compounds that were seen as promising in the early stages of development, only 3 / 2 to 3 / 1 can actually be commercialized as a pharmaceutical product, requiring a development period of 10 to 15 years.Since it costs more than 1,500 billion yen on average to develop one new drug, improving the efficiency of drug development is the biggest issue in the drug industry.Furthermore, in recent years, the number of target papers in medical paper analysis, which is indispensable for selecting new drug candidates, has increased rapidly to over 2,000 million reports, and the amount of information that cannot be read by human power alone has become comprehensive. The difficulty of conducting targeted and non-biased verification is also a major problem in improving the efficiency of drug development.

 

　In this joint project, information on promising target molecules possessed by Axcelead will be analyzed using FRONTEO's proprietary AI "Concept Encoder", and comprehensive and objective evaluation will be performed from a huge amount of medical paper information. increase.This makes it possible to re-evaluate not only new target molecules but also target molecules that have been given up as pharmaceuticals.In addition, this joint project is also expected to realize "industrialization of drug discovery" by fusing with the new drug discovery platform business "A-Digital" that is being promoted based on Axcelead's world-class R & D capability. I put it in.As the drug discovery industry progresses, it is expected that it will be possible to improve the efficiency of drug development by more than 100 times compared to conventional drug discovery methods.

 

　In this way, FRONTEO and Axcelead will contribute to people's health by combining the strengths of both companies in the drug discovery business and building an epoch-making drug discovery development platform.

 

　The impact of this matter alone on FRONTEO's business results for the current fiscal year is minor, but we will promptly notify you if there are any matters to be disclosed.

 

■ About Axcelead　URL:https://www.axcelead-hd.com
Axcelead is Japan's first drug discovery solution provider, Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners Co., Ltd., the only one in Japan that took over the drug discovery platform business of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited) and started its business in 2017. It is a corporate group that develops the healthcare platform business under the umbrella of ARCALIS Co., Ltd., which develops one-stop drug discovery contract development and manufacturing business (CDMO).Axcelead is the flagship investee company of the Drug Discovery Restoration Fund, which was jointly established by Whiz Partners Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in 2018 with the aim of promoting the Japanese drug discovery ecosystem. We will make various contributions to the care business.

■ About FRONTEO　URL:https://www.fronteo.com/
FRONTEO uses the in-house developed AI engines "KIBIT", "Concept Encoder", and "Looca Cross" that specialize in natural language processing to extract meaningful and important information from a huge amount of text data, and is used by companies. A data analysis company that supports business. Since its establishment in August 2003, it has been expanding globally to Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan, focusing on legal tech businesses such as "e-discovery (electronic discovery)" and "digital forensic investigation" that support corporate international litigation. Has been deployed.Based on the AI ​​technology cultivated in this business, we will expand the business field to the life science field, business intelligence field, and economic security from 8, and by using AI to "turn text data into knowledge", We contribute to solving various corporate issues such as drug discovery support, dementia diagnosis support, financial, personnel, and sales support. Listed on TSE Mothers on June 2014, 2007. Obtained a first-class medical device manufacturing and sales business license in January 6 (permit number: 26B2021X1), and notified the managed medical device sales business in September of the same year (notification number: 13 Minato Misei Equipment No. 1).The capital is 10350 thousand yen (as of March 9, 3).

■ About Concept Encoder　URL:https://lifescience.fronteo.com/technology/conceptencoder/
"Concept Encoder" is a natural language analysis AI (artificial intelligence) developed by FRONTEO specially in the life science field.It was developed in 2018 with the aim of effectively analyzing and utilizing medical data containing a large amount of free-form text data based on evidence. Concept Encoder can be co-analyzed with data other than text, and we are conducting research on co-analysis with numerical data such as gene expression information, vitals, and various test values ​​accumulated in the life science field.Patent registration number: Patent No. 6346367

* FRONTEO, KIBIT, and concept encoder are registered trademarks of FRONTEO in Japan.