Xeureka and UBE Announce Joint Research Agreement on Small-Molecule Drug Discovery in the Oncology Field

Xeureka Inc. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Taisei Nagae; hereinafter, “Xeureka”) and UBE Corporation (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Yuki Nishida, hereinafter, “UBE”) announced that they have entered into a joint research agreement on small-molecule drug discovery in the oncology field.

In this joint research program, Xeureka’s advanced computational drug discovery technologies, including its proprietary Free Energy Perturbation* program (hereinafter “Xeureka FEP”), will be used to collaboratively identify new small-molecule compounds that act on promising target molecules for cancer therapy specified by UBE, with the aim of creating novel drug candidate compounds.

Prior to this joint research collaboration, Xeureka and UBE confirmed the applicability and accuracy of Xeureka FEP for the research targets. Based on these results, the two companies agreed to proceed with the joint research collaboration.

Under the terms of this agreement, Xeureka will receive an upfront payment from UBE and will have the right to earn milestone payments based on future research progress.

* Free Energy Perturbation: A statistical mechanics-based computational method used to calculate the change in free energy upon binding between a ligand — defined as a molecule that specifically binds to a biomolecule — and a protein, and one of the methods capable of highly accurate activity prediction.

About Xeureka Inc.

Building on its proprietary large-scale supercomputing infrastructure and advanced computational drug discovery technologies, Xeureka provides drug discovery support services that utilize diverse computational approaches, including AI and large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. With these services, Xeureka will continue to address a broad range of needs, from high-precision activity prediction to virtual screening of compound libraries on the scale of billions, contributing to significant improvements in the efficiency and success rate of drug discovery research.

Xeureka Inc. Profile

About UBE Corporation

UBE, which focuses on specialty chemicals, positions its pharmaceutical business as a core business in the life sciences sector. In drug discovery research, aside from traditional small-molecule drugs, the Company is also pursuing high-value-added drug discovery, such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). In its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business, UBE aims to grow its existing small-molecule pharmaceutical operations while providing solutions that protect people’s lives and health through nucleic acid drugs and other products utilizing manufacturing technologies for new modalities.

UBE Corporation Profile