UBE and FRONTEO launch co-creation project for drug repositioning using Drug Discovery AI Factory

About UBE Corporation URL: https://www.ube.com/ube/en/
UBE Corporation encompasses a group of specialty chemicals businesses, of which the pharmaceuticals business comprises the core of its life sciences portfolio, progressing beyond its track record of discoveries in small molecule therapeutics into high added-value products such as ADCs (antibody-drug conjugates). Alongside is a CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) business, which is strengthening its existing small molecule production capacity while also acquiring capabilities in novel modalities such as oligonucleotide therapeutics. UBE's life science businesses will continue to offer solutions that enhance and protect human life and health.

About unique technology to discover unreported relationships from existing literature information
FRONTEO's AI drug discovery service (DDAIF), which uses the unique technologies of e KIBIT, a specialized AI engine developed in-house, discovers unreported relationships from existing literature information, extracts unreported target molecules with high diseases relevance, and presents hypotheses about the underlying disease mechanisms. In recent years, while research on technologies and methodologies for efficiently accessing the information researchers seek from the vast amount of literature has advanced, making new discoveries from literature still relies on researchers' own imagination and coincidence. FRONTEO’s innovative approach in DDAIF makes it possible to find new discoveries from discontinuous sources in a scientific and systematic manner.
Reference: FRONTEO’s press release on September 9, 2024, Patent application filed for "natural language processing technology that systematically and efficiently discovers unreported relationships from existing literature information", A new technology that overturns common sense in literature searches and revolutionizes science in general, https://www.fronteo.com/pr/20240909

About co-creation project
Companies separately involve in dry research (data analysis) and wet research (biological testing) in conventional AI-based drug discovery support services. Dry research results are usually advanced to wet research without sufficient exchange of opinions and information among researchers in charge of dry and wet research preventing smooth transit from dry research to wet verification.
This co-creation project will enable close collaboration between researchers from both companies in the dry-to-wet process of drug development, thereby creating synergistic deliverables that incorporate knowledge and technologies from both companies. This is expected to improve the success rate of subsequent drug development in similar cases FRONTEO is currently under discussions with multiple pharmaceutical companies.

About FRONTEO URL: https://lifescience.fronteousa.com/
FRONTEO supports experts across various technological fields by providing valuable insights to jumpstart innovation through its proprietary specialized AI engine "KIBIT".
KIBIT implements a unique natural language processing technology (patented in Japan and the United States) that enables high-speed and high-precision analysis of textual repositories without relying on large quantities of training data and computing power, unlike a general-purpose AI engine. By utilizing patented technology that visualizes the structure of relationships between analyzed information, KIBIT provides insights to experts that would otherwise be hidden. In recent years, KIBIT has also been incorporated into analysis tools used for hypothesis generation and target exploration in drug discovery.
In line with FRONTEO’s mission of supporting the information society by providing solutions that discover opportunities and risks that are otherwise hidden in documents, FRONTEO has leveraged KIBIT's unique technology in the fields of Life Science AI, Business Intelligence, Economic Security, and LegalTech AI,
Founded in August 2003, listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market (now Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market) on June 26, 2007. The offices are located in Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan. Obtained the first-class marketing license for medical devices, registered controlled medical device sales business. Capital is 898,618,000 yen (as of August 31, 2024).

* FRONTEO, KIBIT and Drug Discovery AI Factory are registered trademarks of FRONTEO in Japan.