Relation collaborates with Deerfield Management to advance novel therapeutics

Relation and healthcare investment firm Deerfield Management, a current investor, has launched a new research collaboration to advance therapeutic discovery projects for diseases of high unmet need.

Relation is founded on the premise that better success in drug development requires confidence in the biology driving disease. To deliver this confidence in biology, Relation’s “Lab-in-the-Loop” platform aims to integrate state-of-the-art AI with patient-derived multi-omic data and proprietary experimental systems to uncover causal genes and refine target hypotheses. Relation develops medicines to clinical value inflection points across a range of therapy areas, all under the central theme of capitalising on better biological understanding. The company’s portfolio spans immunology, metabolic disease and bone disease.

Under the terms of the agreement, Relation may nominate targets discovered using its platform for downstream development via a NewCo, jointly owned by the Parties. The parties will work collaboratively to develop target product profiles, and Deerfield will provide due diligence support and drug development plans for projects that the parties mutually decide to advance. Both Relation and Deerfield are entitled to royalties of the net sales of any future products.

David Roblin, MD, CEO of Relation, said:

The opportunity to combine Relation’s and Deerfield’s capabilities across AI, biology, discovery and development is a compelling proposition. We believe that this partnership will enable us to expand our R&D efforts and portfolio and ultimately help patients in need.

Matt Nelson, PhD, VP, Genetics and Genomics at Deerfield Discovery and Development (3DC), said:

We are inspired by what the Relation team is working to achieve and look forward to collaborating as we strive to better understand target biology. In combining forces, we hope to expand the boundaries of what we know and leverage therapeutically relevant insights to make a difference for patients.”