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Credit: MipTec 2014
AbbVie and Google-backed Calico announced yesterday that they will co-invest up to $1.5 billion to create a leading R&D facility focused on aging and age-related diseases, including neurodegeneration and cancer. This center will be located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the amalgamation of the two companies serves as a trailblazer for similar research teams dedicated to eradicating aging and age-related diseases.
Aging research has long been regarded by the pharmaceutical industry as a subject of controversy associated with failed expectations, ineffective remedies, and blatantly false claims. However, the explosion of the research and clinical data, fueled by the drop in sequencing costs and technology convergence, has led to the emergence of projects with credible business models and approaches targeting both the age-related diseases as well as the aging-associated processes. Advances in aging biomarkers and in silico drug screening methods may soon enable the pharmaceutical industry to revisit their business models and reshape the regulatory frameworks.
InSilico Medicine, Inc. is thrilled about this new collaboration and its innovative potential. "InSilico Medicine, Inc. has developed several methods for geroprotector and geroprotector combination discovery and screening that are undergoing pre-clinical validation with multiple publications out, in review, and in the pipeline. We must thank Google for paving the way and setting the trend. After they got involved in this field, it gained a lot of credibility. In our opinion it is not a competitor, it is a bulldozer, which will pave the way for the many innovative companies like us." InSilico Medicine CEO, Alex Zhavoronkov, says. "We salute Calico and AbbVie for spearheading the revolution in aging drug discovery and setting the example for other pharmaceutical companies to follow. These are fantastic news for InSilico Medicine, Inc., Human Longevity, Inc., Retrotope, Pathway Pharmaceuticals and many other companies pursuing age-related diseases and aging itself."
With the MipTec 2014 conference in such close proximity to this notable collaboration, there is a great deal excitement for the experts, industries, and enthusiasts of aging therapies. The conference will host exceptional speakers, elaborate forums, and a variety of sponsors and exhibitors all dedicated to practical applications of aging. The conference serves as a bridge for scientists and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to discover the potential for drug screening and discovery platforms for age-related disease. As more companies such as Calico and AbbVie continue to enter the field of aging research, forums like MipTec will increase in popularity and unite partners from a large variety of organizations on an international scale.
More information on MipTec 2014 can be found at http://www.agingpharma.org/.
About InSilico Medicine
InSilico Medicine was founded in early 2014 and has since developed the GeroScopeTM geroprotector scrreening platform and extended the use of exclusively licensed OncoFinder™ system into drug discovery and research. It is a company dedicated to finding novel solutions towards aging and age-related diseases using advances in genomics and big data analysis. Through internal expertise and extensive collaborations with brilliant scientists, institutions, and highly credible pharmaceutical companies, InSilico Medicine seeks to revolutionize personalized science and drug discovery. More can be read about InSilico Medicine, Inc. at http://www.insilicomedicine.com.