Absci and Almirall have expanded their 21-month-old artificial intelligence (AI)-based collaboration to develop and commercialize AI-designed therapeutics for chronic and debilitating skin diseases, with the Barcelona, Spain-based drug developer selecting the second of two planned targets for development.
The expansion of the collaboration follows the companies successfully generating AI-designed, functional antibody leads against their first target, which Absci and Almirall have not disclosed but have characterized as difficult to drug.
The second target is also being characterized as difficult to drug—and its details are also undisclosed, for now: “As the program progresses into later stages of preclinical testing and clinical trials, we are looking forward to sharing more about the program,” Absci said in a statement to GEN.
The companies launched their collaboration in November 2023, with the aim of treating chronic and debilitating skin diseases by combining Almirall’s dermatology expertise with Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation
platform.
Integrated Drug Creation is a generative AI platform made to advance AI-designed and optimized development candidates in as little as 14 months—and potentially faster, the company says, as its data and AI models continue to progress. The platform integrates generative AI models with expertise in synthetic biology, wet-lab data generation, and experimental validation capabilities.
Absci is applying its platform and wet lab capabilities to design and validate the candidates, whose preclinical and clinical development programs Almirall is leading.
‘Proud of this milestone’
“The progress in our collaboration is a testament that AI de novo drug design is a successful approach to unlock novel biology where traditional drug discovery approaches have failed,” Sean McClain, Absci’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “We’re proud of this milestone and excited to deepen our collaboration with Almirall with the goal of bringing a new generation of AI-created therapeutics for dermatology patients.”
Almirall has agreed to pay Absci up to approximately $650 million consisting of an upfront payment of undisclosed amount, payments tied to achieving R&D and post-approval milestones, as well as royalties on product sales.
“Using advanced AI capabilities to design therapeutic candidates against historically challenging disease targets is a highly promising approach, and Absci’s de-novo AI platform capabilities have already demonstrated early success,” added Karl Ziegelbauer, PhD, Almirall’s chief scientific officer.
Ziegelbauer’s professional relationship with former colleague Andreas Busch, PhD—now Absci’s chief innovation officer—during their days at Bayer Pharmaceuticals paved the way for the companies’ partnership, McClain told GEN in 2023. At Bayer, Ziegelbauer had advanced to senior vice president and head of open innovation and digital technologies, while Busch reached the role of executive vice president and head of global drug discovery.
Absci and Almirall announced their expanded collaboration on August 7. Almirall that day reported a 72% year-over-year jump in net income during the first half of 2025, to €26.5 million ($31.1 million) from €15.4 million ($18 million), on revenue that rose nearly 13% to €563.4 million ($660.3 million) from €500.1 million ($586.1 million).
Absci on Tuesday reported second quarter results showing a $30.6 million net loss on revenue of $0.6 million, down from a $24.8 million net loss on $1.3 million in revenue during Q2 2024. The company reported a combined $117.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments as of June 30, down 12% from $134 million as of March 31.
However, Absci said it has since extended its cash runway into the first half of 2028 after raising in July $50 million through an underwritten public offering of common stock, and approximately $14 million through its “at-the-market” facility, which enables the company to sell new shares of its stock at current market prices rather than a fixed number of shares as a fixed price.
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