China-based startups Insilico Medicine and Westlake Pharma have announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop innovative small-molecule drugs for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The cooperation will be based on the anti-COVID-19 drug R&D project by Westlake Pharma, which aims to develop broad-spectrum small molecule inhibitor drugs for key enzymes of coronavirus and has achieved positive results in the preliminary stage.

According to the agreement, the two parties will combine the advantages of Insilico Medicine's AI-powered platforms for drug R&D, and further utilize interdisciplinary molecular design methods such as artificial intelligence, computer simulation and pharmacodynamic to design, synthesize and optimize novel selective small molecule inhibitors to accelerate the advancement of pre-clinical and clinical research on the anti-COVID-19 project.

The close collaboration between Insilico Medicine and Westlake Pharma aims to strengthen multi-party communication and jointly achieve a scientific and technological breakthrough to bring efficient solutions to the R&D of innovative therapies for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and other coronaviruses.