Alloy acquires deepCDR and will expand Basel site

Alloy Therapeutics has acquired the startup deepCDR Biologics and opted for Basel as the location for a permanent research facility. According to a press release issued by the biotechnology firm from the US city of Boston, Alloy is acquiring the Basel-based startup with the aim of using its new antibody discovery and development method. Alloy already operates labs in Basel, but following the takeover of deepCDR will seek to transfer its facilities to a permanent Alloy research center.

Additional computer scientists and developers are to be hired at the Basel site as the Alloy network grows. Basel is set to become the location for bioinformatics and machine learning in the discovery of antibodies. The deepCDR team and technology will strengthen Alloy’s antibody discovery platform and system services from more than 100 global partners, the press release states.

DeepCDR Biologics is a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH). Only last year, it successfully patented its new discovery and development method for antibodies. This should accelerate the development of next-generation antibody drugs. The new method makes use of the deep learning capabilities and is also faster and significantly more cost-effective than previous methods.

Errik Anderson, CEO and founder of Alloy Therapeutics, expects that his firm’s network partners will use the deepCDR method to open up research opportunities “that otherwise would have been cost prohibitive or inaccessible”. These types of technological improvements will serve to enhance the output of Alloy in terms of drug research activities, Anderson adds.

“The data sets and infrastructure within Alloy unlock powerful new opportunities for the deepCDR technology and team that will in turn enable us to help drug discovery teams more effectively and efficiently find the best antibody candidates”, explains Sai Reddy, founder of deepCDR, in discussing the cooperation in the press release.