SK Biopharmaceuticals Signs AI-Based CNS Drug Development Deal Worth Up to $2.57 Billion with Insilico

On June 22, SK Biopharmaceuticals announced at the 2026 BIO International Convention in the United States that it had signed a research and development collaboration agreement with Insilico Medicine, a company specializing in generative artificial intelligence (AI)-based drug development, to develop therapeutics for central nervous system (CNS) disorders targeting multiple indications. The purpose of this collaboration is to discover innovative drug candidates in the neuroimmune area of the CNS, which has a high level of unmet medical needs. Leveraging its expertise in epilepsy and the CNS field, established through cenobamate (marketed in the United States as XCOPRI®), SK Biopharmaceuticals is expanding its research into the new therapeutic area of neuroimmunology. This move is significant as it aims to diversify the CNS portfolio both qualitatively and quantitatively. This agreement marks the first AI-based drug discovery (AIDD) project executed through the Open Innovation Center (OIC) launched by SK Biopharmaceuticals. The company has established a joint research structure that allows it to lead the entire process, from target selection to stage-gate validation. Through this, SK Biopharmaceuticals can not only identify promising compounds via external collaboration but also maintain control over the early discovery stages, thereby enhancing the value of its drug assets and fostering a multidimensional open innovation environment. With AI platforms and Asia-based biotechs emerging as new breakthroughs in global drug R&D, SK Biopharmaceuticals will utilize Insilico’s advanced AI drug development platform, Pharma.AI, during the initial discovery and preclinical phases. This approach is expected to reduce the time required to identify drug candidates by nearly 50% compared to traditional research methodologies, while also significantly lowering early discovery costs. Starting with this collaboration, SK Biopharmaceuticals plans to accelerate its “Extended R&D Lab” model, which organically incorporates external technological capabilities into its own research infrastructure. The total size of the contract is up to 2.57 billion dollars (approximately 3.9503 trillion won), with an upfront payment set at 4.5 million dollars (about 6.9 billion won). SK Biopharmaceuticals will be solely responsible for clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization following the initial research phase, and will also fully secure material ownership as well as exclusive global development and commercialization rights for drug candidates derived from the joint research. This collaboration will also be used to internalize SK Biopharmaceuticals’ own AI R&D capabilities. All molecular design data generated during the partnership, validation data comparing AI predictions to experimental results, and structure-activity relationship (SAR) learning data for compounds will be accumulated by SK Biopharmaceuticals. In the short term, this will allow the company to rapidly generate drug candidates, while in the medium to long term, it will help build a robust data asset base to systematically enhance its internal AI and digital transformation-based drug design capabilities. Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine, stated, “We are pleased to announce this collaboration at a global bio event, which demonstrates the powerful impact of communication and cooperation across industries in accelerating healthcare innovation. Since CNS disorders have been a key area of research for Insilico since its founding, I am confident that our accelerated AI processes, combined with SK Biopharmaceuticals’ global capabilities, will provide groundbreaking breakthroughs.” Donghoon Lee, CEO of SK Biopharmaceuticals, commented, “The significance of this agreement is that SK Biopharmaceuticals is serving as an ‘East-West bridge,’ connecting the rapidly growing Asia-based AIDD discovery ecosystem with the U.S. clinical and commercialization infrastructure we have built through cenobamate. The synergy between Insilico’s AI platform technology and SK Biopharmaceuticals’ U.S. clinical and commercialization infrastructure will not be limited to a single asset. We will develop this model as a growth platform that can be repeatedly applied to the discovery of new targets in the future.”