Deal will focus on applying artificial intelligence to the prediction of small-molecule API behaviors.

 Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen business has signed a deal, with Paris-based Iktos, the details of which neither company has provided, to apply artificial intelligence solutions to the prediction of small-molecule API behaviors and identification of the candidates most likely to make successful drugs. 

Iktos uses deep generative models for in silico drug design and claims it increases the translation of drug discovery efforts into successful drugs through “its unique capacity to explore chemical space with speed and efficiency, thus enabling identification of molecules that meet the desired criteria in a given research project.”

Janssen will use Iktos’ virtual drug design technology in combination with its previously established approaches to AI-enabled prediction of small-molecule activities for several of its small-molecule projects. 

The strategic collaboration with Janssen is not the first for the company with big pharma. It already has agreements in place with several European biopharmaceutical firms, including Servier, Galapagos, German Merck and Pierre Fabre, but Janssen is the first U.S.-based company it will be working with.