AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) and San Diego-based Iambic Therapeutics announced a multi-year collaboration to apply Iambic's AI-driven small molecule discovery platform to generate new drug candidates across immunology, neuroscience, and oncology. Iambic will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for success-based milestone payments and tiered royalties on net sales of any products generated through the collaboration, though specific financial figures were not disclosed.
The collaboration centers on Iambic's molecular superintelligence platform, specifically Enchant v3 and NeuralPLexer. Enchant v3 is a multimodal transformer model trained on over 6,000 molecular properties that enables simultaneous multi-parameter optimization across drug candidates, rather than evaluating properties sequentially. NeuralPLexer is a structure prediction model for protein-ligand complexes that supports 3D-informed molecular design. AbbVie's discovery scientists will apply these tools to generate new small molecule candidates, with no pre-existing programs being transferred under the agreement.
The AbbVie agreement extends Iambic's growing roster of Big Pharma discovery collaborations. In February 2026, Iambic signed a multi-year deal with Takeda covering oncology and gastrointestinal and inflammation programs, with success-based payments that could exceed USD 1.7 billion. In June 2026, Bayer entered a separate collaboration with Iambic focused on small molecule discovery against hard-to-drug targets, with upfront, milestone, and royalty terms. Earlier partnerships include a September 2024 agreement with H. Lundbeck A/S targeting migraine and an October 2024 clinical collaboration with Jazz Pharmaceuticals to evaluate Iambic's HER2 inhibitor IAM1363 in combination with Jazz's zanidatamab in HER2-positive breast cancer.
Access the AllSci platform to explore the science behind the news.
Spot something wrong? Report an issue with this article