Disease modeling and target identification are critical and time-consuming portions of the drug discovery process and areas where artificial intelligence (AI) is already making a substantial impact. A new opinion paper in the Cell Press journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences traces the history of target discovery methods - from experimental approaches, to

Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, announced that it has entered a definitive purchase and licence agreement for a portfolio of preclinical gene therapy programmes and enabling technologies from Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer). The agreement furthers Alexion and AstraZeneca's commitment to advancing next-generation genomic medicines with the addition of complementary pipeline assets and innovative technologies.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced changes to its executive leadership team to further advance its aspirations to discover and develop new medicines and vaccines, with an emphasis on oncology.

Effective today, Chris Boshoff, M.D., PhD, will join Pfizer's Executive Leadership Team as Chief Oncology Research and Development Officer and Executive Vice President reporting to

AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) and Calibr today announced an expanded strategic collaboration to advance several innovative preclinical and early-stage clinical assets across AbbVie's core therapeutic growth areas including immunology, oncology, neuroscience and other areas of interest. This partnership is an expansion of the collaboration AbbVie and Scripps Research formed in 2019 to develop a broad range of potential new and novel therapeutics.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced data from a Phase 2 study investigating its hexavalent capsular polysaccharide (CPS) conjugate Group B Streptococcus (GBS) vaccine candidate, GBS6, being developed for maternal administration to protect infants against invasive GBS disease. In stage two of the three-part study, which enrolled 360 healthy pregnant individuals, GBS6 generated robust maternal antibody responses against the six GBS CPS serotypes included in the vaccine, and these antibodies were efficiently transferred to infants at ratios of ~0.4-1.3 depending on GBS6 group.

Novartis has acquired DTx Pharma, a San-Diego based, preclinical stage biotechnology company focused on leveraging its proprietary FALCON platform to develop siRNA therapies for neuroscience indications.

DTx’s lead program, DTx-1252 targets the root cause of CMT1A - the overexpression of PMP22, a protein that causes the myelin sheath that supports and insulates nerves in the peripheral nervous system to function abnormally.

Flagship Pioneering, Inc. and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced the companies have partnered to create a new pipeline of innovative medicines. Under the terms of the novel agreement, Flagship and Pfizer will each invest $50M upfront to explore opportunities to develop 10 single-asset programs by leveraging Flagship's ecosystem of more than 40 human health companies and multiple biotechnology platforms.