Overview

Evince Biosciences is a next generation drug discovery company with a discovery platform that applies artificial intelligence to the discovery process and an internal program targeting cancer immunotherapy. The Evince AVO (Autonomous Virtual Organism) platform accelerates drug discovery using a compelling machine learning approach. The “secret sauce” necessary for success in drug discovery is not just the application of artificial intelligence, but also the method by which molecules are described, in a biological environment. How we describe molecules via virtual biological simulations is a key competitive advantage. Beyond initial drug discovery, AVO is also applied to lead optimization, or virtual medicinal chemistry. New molecules are designed based on the drug-like leads and evaluated in AVO. The AVO algorithm can predict which chemical changes provide an advantage and prioritize the molecules to be synthesized. AVO has a dramatic economic impact on the drug discovery process. Reduction in cycle time and cost through discovery and lead optimization can lower the capitalized cost by 63%, based on Evince’s analysis of a pharmaceutical productivity study published in Nature Reviews (March 2010). For a biotech company, lower cost enables prosecution of more molecules in parallel and higher probability of success. Evince’s internal program for cancer immunotherapy elicits multiple antitumor responses via stimulation of the innate immune system and priming of the adaptive immune system, including activation of natural killer cells, cytotoxic T lymphocytes and key cytokines and chemokines. Evince expects that its program will augment other cancer treatments, particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors, which currently are highly therapeutic in a subset of patients, but have a low response rate.