Finnish pharmaceutical company Orion has entered a partnership with Aitia to leverage artificial intelligence in drug discovery and simulation in the oncology field.

Through their collaboration, the companies aim to develop new Gemini Digital Twins - innovative tools designed to enhance cancer treatment strategies.

Orion and Aitia will leverage the Digital Twins technology of Aitia along with Orion's extensive pre-clinical and clinical expertise to discover and validate new drug targets.

Their collaboration is set to address translational questions and develop drug candidates for multiple cancer indications.

Orion innovative medicines and research and development senior vice-president Outi Vaarala stated: “We are excited to collaborate with Aitia to harness the power of their Gemini Digital Twins and Causal AI technology in the discovery and development of new cancer treatments.

“By leveraging their cutting-edge technology, we aim to unlock deeper insights into the complex biology of cancer, ultimately accelerating the development of novel therapies that could significantly improve patient outcomes.”

Orion has secured an exclusive option for the research, development and commercialisation of new drug candidates against the targets chosen by Aitia.

Aitia is entitled to upfront payments and milestone payments on meeting development and regulatory goals.

Milestone payments can exceed $10m per drug target.

Aitia will earn tiered single-digit royalty payments on the sales of products developed through the partnership.

Aitia CEO and co-founder Colin Hill stated: “Our collaboration with Orion is particularly exciting as it brings together our Gemini Digital Twins which leverage large quantities of multi-omic patient data and causal AI and simulation with Orion’s deep expertise in oncology drug discovery and development.

“By creating highly accurate and predictive models of disease, we can uncover previously hidden mechanisms and pathways, accelerating the discovery of new, more effective medicines.”

In July 2024, Orion and MSD announced that the agreement for the co-development and co-commercialisation of opevesostat (MK-5684/ODM-208) has changed to give MSD exclusive rights to the asset.