FRONTEO Inc. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Masahiro Morimoto; hereinafter referred to as FRONTEO) and TechnoPro R&D, an in-house company of TechnoPro Inc. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Masami Hayafune; hereinafter referred to as TechnoPro R&D), are pleased to announce that they have signed a strategic business collaboration agreement regarding research and development solutions in drug discovery. Through collaboration in the fields of target molecule identification, hypothesis generation, wet experiments, and virtual screening of drug discovery candidate compounds, the two companies will contribute to improving the success rate and speed of drug development for pharmaceutical companies and other clients.

 

 

In drug development, traditional research methods rely heavily on the experience, knowledge, and inspiration of researchers, making it difficult to find highly novel targets, which leads to a low success rate and skyrocketing costs.

To solve these issues, under this partnership, FRONTEO will use its AI drug discovery support service "FRONTEO Drug Discovery AI Factory" (DDAIF)*, which specializes in hypothesis generation, to extract targets and biomarkers with a high probability of success using scientific and systematic methods, and generate hypotheses that support their actions. Based on the output of FRONTEO's dry research (data analysis), TechnoPro R&D will verify the targets through wet research (biological testing using cells, animals, etc.), predict 3D structures, and conduct virtual screening of candidate compounds for drug discovery.

This will enable both companies to leverage their respective strengths in the areas of dry and wet research, enabling them to quickly provide customers with novel drug discovery candidate compounds with a high probability of success.

FRONTEO and TechnoPro R&D will combine their accumulated knowledge of drug discovery and proprietary technologies to improve the success rate of their clients' pharmaceutical research and development and contribute to people's health.

* An AI drug discovery support service in which FRONTEO's drug discovery experts, who are well versed in AI and drug discovery, use FRONTEO's in-house developed specialized natural language processing AI "KIBIT" to discover unknown associations from known literature information, as well as proprietary analysis methods, to search for target molecules and indications and provide supporting hypotheses.

 

■About our unique technology for discovering unknown relationships from known literature information
FRONTEO provides solutions in DDAIF that use its proprietary technology, KIBIT, a specialized AI developed in-house, to discover unknown associations that have not been described in known literature information, extract unreported target molecules with high disease relevance, and present them together with hypotheses on the underlying disease mechanisms. In recent years, research into technologies and methodologies for efficiently accessing the information researchers are looking for from vast amounts of literature information has progressed, but new discoveries from known literature information still depend on the researchers' own imagination and chance. Our innovative approach in DDAIF makes it possible to realize such discontinuous discoveries scientifically and systematically.
[Reference] Press release dated September 2024, 9: Patent application filed for "natural language processing technology that systematically and efficiently discovers unknown associations from known literature information" A new technology that overturns conventional wisdom about literature search and brings innovation to science, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20240909

About TechnoPro R&D　URL:https://www.technopro.com/rd/
The TechnoPro Group is Japan's largest technical human resources service group, with 28,621 engineers and researchers (26,054 in Japan and 2,567 overseas) based in Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, the United States, etc. Highly regarded for its breadth of expertise and advanced technical capabilities, which cover all technical fields required by industry, including machinery, electricity/electronics, IT applications, IT infrastructure, AI/data analysis, chemistry, biology, medicine, and construction, the company provides a variety of technology-based services to more than 2,500 companies, research institutes, public organizations, and universities both in Japan and overseas.
TechnoPro R&D, a core company of the TechnoPro Group, specializes in chemical and bio research and development and contract testing. It employs over 1,500 full-time researchers and provides services to approximately 400 clients at any given time, including major pharmaceutical and chemical companies, university laboratories, and public and private research institutes. The company offers optimal solutions to resolve the technical issues faced by its clients, including researcher dispatch, contract services, and technical consulting. (All figures are as of the end of June 2024)

■ About FRONTEO　URL:https://www.fronteo.com/
FRONTEO supports the judgment of experts in various fields who face social issues day and night through the provision of its proprietary specialized AI "KIBIT," and creates the starting point for innovation. Unlike general-purpose AI, our proprietary natural language processing technology (patented in Japan and the United States) enables high-speed and high-precision analysis without relying on the amount of training data or computing power. In addition, by utilizing patented technology that maps (visualizes the structure) the analyzed information, "KIBIT" can directly influence the insights of experts, and in recent years, KIBIT's technology has also been used in hypothesis generation and target discovery in drug discovery.
Through KIBIT's unique technology and approach, we aim to realize the philosophy of "providing solutions that do not overlook risks and opportunities buried in records, and realizing fairness in the information society." We are promoting social implementation in various fields of legal tech AI.
Founded in August 2003, listed on TSE Mothers (currently TSE Growth) on June 8, 2007. The company operates in Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan. Obtained a first-class medical device manufacturing and sales business license and registered a controlled medical device sales business. Capital: 6 yen (as of March 26, 898,618).

*FRONTEO, KIBIT, and Drug Discovery AI Factory are registered trademarks of FRONTEO in Japan.