Italfarmaco S.p.A., a global pharmaceutical company with established expertise in histone deacetylase (HDAC) biology and therapeutic development, and VeriSIM Life, an AI-enabled drug discovery and development company, announced a strategic collaboration to discover and develop novel HDAC-targeted therapeutic assets for neuromuscular, fibrotic, and rare diseases.

The collaboration brings together Italfarmaco’s expertise in HDAC biology, medicinal chemistry, translational science, and clinical development with VeriSIM Life’s proprietary BIOiSIM^® and AtlasGEN^™ platforms. Together, the companies will discover, design, synthesize, and optimize novel small molecules against a selected HDAC target, using AI-enabled predictive intelligence in drug discovery to prioritize compounds with the strongest potential for successful clinical translation.

Under the terms of the agreement, VeriSIM Life is eligible to receive technology service fees, development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, and royalties on future commercial products. The collaboration has a total potential value exceeding US $100 million and is structured to create novel therapeutic assets and associated intellectual property.

BIOiSIM evaluates generated molecules across pharmacology, exposure, safety, biomarkers, and patient variability, while AtlasGEN designs novel synthesizable chemical matter. The integrated approach is designed to prioritize molecules not only for target activity, but also for the pharmacological and translational characteristics needed to advance successfully into clinical development.

“Italfarmaco has world-class expertise in HDAC biology and has brought its first HDAC-targeted therapeutic to market,” said Dr. Christian Steinkühler, Chief Scientific Officer of Italfarmaco Group. “This partnership enables us to expand our pipeline into new indications with high unmet needs, including neuromuscular, fibrotic, and rare diseases. By leveraging VeriSIM Life’s AI-enabled mechanistic reasoning platform, we have an opportunity to identify differentiated therapeutic candidates, make more informed decisions earlier in discovery, and unlock the broader potential of HDAC-based medicines.”

“The future of drug discovery won't be defined by how many molecules we can generate. It will be defined by how confidently we can predict which ones become medicines,” said Dr. Jo Varshney, Founder and CEO of VeriSIM Life. “Together with Italfarmaco, we're combining HDAC biology with AI-enabled mechanistic reasoning to design differentiated therapeutic assets with clinical translation and patient benefit in mind from the first design cycle.”

The partnership advances VeriSIM Life’s strategy of creating proprietary therapeutic assets with pharmaceutical partners while participating in their long-term value. It also supports Italfarmaco’s continued expansion of its HDAC discovery pipeline through next-generation computational and generative technologies.