Servier announces second AI partnership in a week – this time with Iktos for drug discovery

The French pharmaceutical company Servier has announced a partnership with Paris-based biotech company Iktos, aimed at discovering new small molecules for the treatment of various diseases, including cancer and neurological conditions, pharmaphorum.com reports.

The deal could reach a value of over €1 billion and includes upfront payments, research funding, and milestone payments. The partnership covers several therapeutic targets, the two companies reported.

Under the terms of the agreement, Iktos will utilize its generative artificial intelligence platform and AI-coordinated robotics to develop candidate molecules. Servier will then take over their further development in preclinical and clinical trials.

This is Servier’s latest strategic collaboration to expand its research portfolio and comes just days after the company signed an $888 million deal with Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine to use the Pharma.AI platform in the discovery of new anticancer therapies.

Servier’s Global Head of External R, Christophe Thurieau, stated that the partnership with Iktos underscores the company’s commitment to innovative approaches in small molecule drug discovery as part of its R activities. He added that working together with the Iktos teams will contribute to a better understanding of therapeutic targets and improve the quality of candidates, enabling more effective development of new therapies for the benefit of patients worldwide.

Iktos was founded in 2016 by Yann Gaston-Mathé, Quentin Perron, and Nicolas Do Huu. The company is developing a deep learning-based platform that uses generative AI for the in silico design of new molecules, combined with rapid automated synthesis and testing via a robotic system. This system can conduct hundreds of reactions and analyses in parallel every day.

Following the acquisition of the French startup Synsight in 2024, Iktos has further expanded its platform’s capabilities. The company claims its approach can shorten drug discovery time from five years to two or less, while significantly increasing efficiency and success rates.

The deal with Servier is considered Iktos’s largest partnership to date, although the company has already worked with several major pharmaceutical groups, including MSD, Merck, Lundbeck, Pfizer, Orion, and Italfarmaco.

Iktos CEO Yann Gaston-Mathé stated that the company is proud to begin this strategic collaboration with Servier, a global group with strong scientific expertise and a long-term vision for therapeutic innovation. He added that by combining Iktos’s AI capabilities with Servier’s expertise in oncology, neurology, and translational science, the goal is to accelerate the development of innovative therapies with real benefits for patients worldwide.