FRONTEO Inc. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Masahiro Morimoto; hereinafter "FRONTEO") has partnered with US consulting firm Q Partners LLC (Head office: Washington DC, USA; Founder and Representative: Miho Sakuma; Senior Partner: Yuko Kuno; hereinafter "Q Partners") to fully expand its business in the US market.https://qpartnersdc.com/This agreement marks the launch of the Drug Discovery AI Factory in the U.S. (https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20250227This is a follow-up release regarding the consulting company, and now we are disclosing more details about the consulting company in question.

　Q Partners is a consulting firm led by Miho Sakuma, who has a proven track record in consulting in the life sciences industry, and Yuko Kuno, who has founded and managed a drug discovery venture company through the development of multiple pharmaceuticals. Both have extensive experience in consulting for major life science companies and academic institutions in the United States. FRONTEO will utilize Q Partners' network and knowledge to develop and implement a strategy for expanding its life science AI business into the U.S. market.

　Currently, the need for new AI technology to complement large-scale language models (LLMs) has been pointed out in the United States. Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist at Meta, said, "We need a completely different technology design from the mainstream generative AI that is based on LLMs. We need a mechanism to develop intelligence quickly and efficiently without having to read in large amounts of data like humans and animals do."¹

　In response to these issues, FRONTEO's in-house developed specialized AI "KIBIT" has strengths in unique natural language processing, and is characterized by its ability to perform high-speed, highly accurate analysis without relying on the amount of training data or computing power, assuming collaboration with experts. In particular, the drug discovery support service "FRONTEO Drug Discovery AI Factory (DDAIF)" that utilizes KIBIT has already built up a track record in Japan in terms of hypothesis generation and target discovery, expanding co-creation projects* with major pharmaceutical companies, and is attracting a lot of attention as an AI technology that complements LLM.

　FRONTEO will accelerate the expansion of its life science AI business, including DDAIF, in the U.S. and aim to increase its presence in the country.

1) Nikkei Online, June 2025, 6, Superintelligence, the last great invention created by mankind, "Realized in 2" Future prediction stirs, https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC1466C0U5A410C2000000/

■Q Partners Founding Partner, President Miho Sakuma
He is currently an associate partner in the life sciences division of McKinsey & Company in Washington DC, where he provides consulting services to pharmaceutical companies in the US, Japan and Europe. He is responsible for a wide range of themes including corporate strategy, organizational design and business development. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

■Q Partners Senior Partner Yuko Kuno
After earning her doctorate from Kyoto University, she went on to study at the Technical University of Munich before co-founding R-Tech Ueno and commercializing the glaucoma treatment "Rescula Eye Drops." She then co-founded several drug discovery ventures in the United States, including Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and VLP Therapeutics. As a social entrepreneur, she established the S&R Foundation, Halcyon (Washington DC), and Phoenixi (Kyoto), and is dedicated to supporting young people and contributing to society. She has also served as a director and council member at various universities and foundations, including Kyoto University, and has received numerous awards, including being named to Forbes' "50 Self-Made Women in America."

About Q Partners URL:https://qpartnersdc.com/
Q Partners was founded in Washington DC by two professionals with deep roots in both Japan and the U.S. Based on a shared belief that "Japanese life sciences has great potential, and with the right partners, it is entirely possible to succeed in the global market," the firm provides advisory services based on deep expertise and extensive practical experience to Japanese innovators looking to enter the U.S. market.

About FRONTEO DDAIF
URL: https://lifescience.fronteo.com/products/drug-discovery-ai-factory/
"FRONTEO Drug Discovery AI Factory (DDAIF)" is an AI drug discovery support service that combines the knowledge of FRONTEO's drug discovery researchers and AI engineers with "KIBIT" (patented in Japan and the US), an AI specialized in natural language processing. It strongly supports researchers' decision-making in drug development by analyzing disease-related gene networks and building hypotheses about target candidates.

This service has already been introduced at several major pharmaceutical companies and is accumulating a proven track record.

■About FRONTEO's co-creation project
In general AI-based drug discovery solutions, the results of dry research (data analysis) and wet research (biological testing using cells, animals, etc.) are often submitted without active exchange of opinions or sharing of sensitive information between the companies in charge of the latter. This is one of the reasons why a smooth transition to wet validation cannot be made.
In this important process of moving from dry to wet, the co-creation project aims to create deliverables that maximize the synergistic effects of incorporating the knowledge and technologies possessed by both FRONTEO and the client company's drug discovery researchers through close collaboration (co-creation) across boundaries.
It is expected that this initiative will also contribute significantly to improving the success rate of clients' drug development in similar projects currently under discussion with multiple pharmaceutical companies.

[Reference: Co-creation project with pharmaceutical companies]
・ FRONTEO and Chugai Pharmaceutical launch co-creation project for target discovery using Drug Discovery AI Factory, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20250515
・ EA Pharma and FRONTEO launch co-creation project to explore drug discovery targets using AI, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20250512
・ FRONTEO and Eisai launch co-creation project for target discovery using Drug Discovery AI Factory, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20250128
・ FRONTEO and Maruishi Pharmaceutical launch a co-creation project for biomarker discovery using Drug Discovery AI Factory, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20250109
・ FRONTEO and UBE launch co-creation project on drug repositioning using Drug Discovery AI Factory, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20241114

[Reference: Joint research projects with academia]
・ FRONTEO and Tokyo University of Science begin joint research into discovering new drug discovery targets using the Drug Discovery AI Factory, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20250513
・ FRONTEO and Kumamoto University begin joint research to discover new cancer treatments using Drug Discovery AI Factory, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20250508

■ About FRONTEO Co., Ltd.　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, the United States, and Europe) 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.

<Contact for inquiries from the press>
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Email: pr_contact@fronteo.com Phone: 080-4321-6692

<Contact information for inquiries regarding FRONTEO's life science AI business>
Life Science AI Division
https://lifescience.fronteo.com/contact