Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Neumora Therapeutics, Inc. (Neumora), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering precision medicines for brain diseases, announced a strategic collaboration to advance neuroscience discovery, development and commercialization. The companies will collaborate on programs by applying Neumora’s proprietary precision neuroscience platform to insights generated by Amgen’s deCODE genetics and human data research capabilities. In addition, Neumora has received a $100 million equity investment from Amgen and acquired exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize Amgen programs targeting casein kinase 1 delta and glucocerebrosidase for neurodegenerative diseases.
Neumora leverages proprietary multimodal capabilities and technologies to integrate advanced computational data science with R&D to increase the probability of success of drug development in brain diseases. Neumora’s precision neuroscience platform focuses on the creation of Data Biopsy Signatures™ to deconvolve the complex systems that drive brain diseases and connect the signatures to clinically meaningful measures to inform the development of therapeutics for an enriched patient population, or Precision Phenotypes™.
Amgen’s deCODE genetics subsidiary is a global leader in analyzing and understanding human health and disease and has been at the forefront of the analysis of human data to enhance drug discovery and development. By leveraging these platform technologies and the complementary capabilities of both companies, the collaboration aims to discover unique and unprecedented insights into brain diseases across neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, including schizophrenia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), ultimately leading to effective therapeutics targeted at patients most likely to respond to treatment.
“Our collaboration with Neumora leverages both our unique capabilities from deCODE and Neumora’s focus and expertise in brain diseases to discover and develop potentially best-in-class precision therapies,” said David M. Reese, M.D., executive vice president of Research and Development at Amgen. “Although Amgen is not currently engaged in neuroscience research and early development internally, this approach addresses our commitment to remain engaged in neuroscience through external collaborations, and we are excited to work with Neumora to propel R&D for brain diseases into the future and advance promising new medicines.”
“This partnership with Amgen underscores the vast potential of precision drug development for brain diseases; insights generated by deCODE will further enhance Neumora’s data-driven precision medicine approach,” said Paul L. Berns, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer at Neumora. “We are also excited to expand our pipeline with potential best-in-class programs targeting casein kinase 1 delta and glucocerebrosidase for neurodegenerative diseases. Neumora is poised to become a pioneer in precision drug development for brain diseases and we look forward to working with Amgen to advance promising new medicines for patients in need of better treatment options.”
