[Edaily Reporter KIM SAE-MI ] SK Biopharm ( SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS(326030)) announced on the 22nd that it has signed a joint research and development agreement with Insilico Medicine, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery company, to identify new central nervous system (CNS) drug candidates.

The agreement was announced at the “2026 Bio International Convention” (Bio USA) held in San Diego, U.S.

The total contract value is up to $2.5725 billion (approximately 3.9488 trillion won), of which $4.5 million (6.9 billion won) is an upfront payment. Running royalties will be paid separately based on net sales of the products. The exchange rate of 1,535 won, as of the 22nd—the date of the board resolution—was applied for the conversion to Korean won.

The two companies will utilize Insilico’s AI-based drug discovery platform, “Pharma.AI,” to identify drug candidates for three collaborative targets and conduct joint research through the preclinical stage. SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS will secure ownership of the drug candidates derived from the joint research, as well as exclusive global rights to their development and commercialization.

SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS emphasized that this agreement features a performance-based payment structure. The company explained that it has reduced R&D risks by lowering the initial upfront payment and structuring payments to be contingent on milestones achieved during the candidate discovery and development phases.

This collaboration aims to expand SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS’ capabilities in the CNS field—built through cenobamate—into the neuroimmunology domain. SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS plans to lead the research direction and stage-by-stage validation processes from the initial candidate discovery stage and will directly oversee subsequent clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization.

SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS plans to use this agreement as an opportunity to enhance its in-house AI R&D capabilities. The company intends to accumulate internally the molecular design data, comparisons between AI predictions and experimental results, and structure-activity relationship (SAR) data for compounds obtained during the joint research process, thereby strengthening its AI- and digital transformation-based new drug design capabilities in the future.

Lee Dong-hoon, President of SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS, stated, “This agreement serves as a model that connects the discovery capabilities of the Asia-based AI drug discovery ecosystem with SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS’s U.S. clinical and commercialization infrastructure.” He added, “We will develop this into a growth platform that can be repeatedly applied whenever new targets are identified, rather than limiting it to a single asset.”