San Francisco-based Verge Labs has announced a platform collaboration with China-based Tenacia Biotechnology to apply its human tissue AI platform to select CNS programs in Tenacia's pipeline, marking the first deal under Verge's newly launched platform-first commercial model. The arrangement gives Tenacia access to Verge's multimodal brain dataset — described by the company as comprising more than 12,000 brain transcriptomes across 6,500 patients — to inform target selection and translational decisions before significant development resources are committed. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Verge Labs, formerly known as Verge Genomics, rebranded and launched its platform-first model in May 2026, positioning itself as a provider of AI-driven biological intelligence to external drug developers rather than solely an internal pipeline company. Under the Tenacia arrangement, Verge will deploy its platform to characterize and prioritize targets across multiple CNS programs, grounding development decisions in direct human brain biology. The platform integrates bulk transcriptomics, single-cell profiling, proteomics, genomics, and matched clinical data from human tissue. Verge describes its approach as identifying dysregulated gene networks and the master regulator genes whose modulation could restore diseased networks toward a healthy expression state.
The platform's prior clinical proof point is VRG50635, a PIKfyve inhibitor for ALS that completed a Phase I study in late 2025 — one of the few AI-discovered CNS candidates to reach human trials from any platform company. That program's ex-US rights were licensed to Ferrer for up to USD 122 million.
Tenacia, founded in 2022 and backed by Bain Capital, has built its CNS pipeline primarily through in-licensing and AI-enabled discovery partnerships. The company previously expanded an AI-driven CNS collaboration with Insilico Medicine (HKEX: 3696) worth up to USD 94.75 million, adding a second generative AI-designed small-molecule program against an undisclosed neurological target. In March 2026, Tenacia also licensed RAP-219 from Rapport Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RAPP) in a deal worth up to USD 328 million, securing Greater China rights to a TARPγ8-selective AMPA receptor negative allosteric modulator in Phase II development for focal onset seizures and bipolar mania. The Verge partnership adds a distinct capability to that mix: rather than in-licensing molecules or contracting for generative chemistry, Tenacia is using human tissue data to validate and prioritize targets within its existing programs.