Merck KGaA, Quris Partner on BioAI Platform for Clinical Safety Prediction

Quris, an artificial intelligence (AI) innovator in the pharmaceutical arena, has signed an agreement with Merck KGaA allowing Merck KGaA to assess Quris’s BioAI safety prediction platform, comparing it to traditional in vitro and in vivo approaches. 

Quris’s BioAI safety prediction platform introduces a unique concept (18 granted and pending patents), which integrates miniaturized human tissues on a chip, nano-sensing, and machine learning, to predict which drug candidates will work safely in humans.

The collaboration allows Merck KGaA to assess Quris’s platform with the initial assessment focusing on identifying potential liver toxicity risks for drug candidates, with special emphasis on ones that preclinical experiments failed to identify. Subsequently, Merck KGaA has the option to obtain up to a five-year exclusive license to a specific disease domain. If Merck KGaA, exercises the option, Quris may receive an undisclosed amount. 

“The pharmaceutical industry is modernizing drug discovery , and innovations in AI hold significant promise,” noted Quris Scientific Advisory Board Member Dr. Robert S. Langer, co-founder of Moderna and lauded MIT professor. “As Quris expands its collaborations with pharmaceutical companies, this will hopefully lead to new ways to find novel drugs that safely meet patients’ needs in the years ahead.”