[San Diego (U.S.) = E-Daily Reporter SONG YOUNG-DOO ] It has been revealed that Galaxy, a South Korean artificial intelligence (AI)-based new drug development company, has been conducting joint research with global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. In particular, as this joint research is confirmed to be based on a technology transfer agreement, expectations are growing that the company will achieve another significant milestone with a global “Big Pharma” firm, following last year’s collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim.

On the 22nd (local time), during the “Bio International Convention (Bio USA)”—the world’s largest biotech event held in San Diego, U.S.—AstraZeneca officially announced its joint AI-based new drug development research with Galaxy at the “NOVA Global Connect 2026” event, co-hosted with the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI).

Park Tae-yong, Vice President (and co-founder) of Galax, who made the announcement that day, emphasized in an interview with E-Daily after the event that the joint research with AstraZeneca is structured in a way that could lead to a technology transfer in the future. It was confirmed that the two companies have been continuing their joint research since meeting at last year’s Bio USA.

“Our joint research with AstraZeneca began after we first met at Bio USA last year,” said Vice President Park, adding, “It is a collaborative model that could evolve into a technology transfer in the future.” In fact, since AstraZeneca officially announced the partnership at Bio USA—indicating that this is not merely a simple joint research project but a case with a reasonable likelihood of success—some observers suggest that significant progress has already been made.

According to Vice President Park, the core of this joint research lies in creating “de novo proteins” for challenging targets that meet predefined functional characteristics. A key feature is that it targets molecules that have traditionally been difficult to develop into drugs.

He stated, “The joint research with AstraZeneca will proceed in three stages: △ defining the target profile and desired functional criteria; △ Galax designing proteins using AI; and △ Galax and AstraZeneca jointly validating the designed proteins,” adding, “We expect to generate synergy by combining Galax’s AI-based design capabilities with AstraZeneca’s expertise in therapeutics.”

Founded in September 2020, Galax is an AI-driven new drug development company now in its sixth year of operation, built upon the “GALAXY” protein modeling research conducted at Seoul National University since 2000. The company has consistently achieved top rankings in international protein structure prediction competitions such as CASP and CAPRI. To date, it has raised $47 million and counts AstraZeneca, as well as Boehringer Ingelheim, Celltrion, and LG Chem, among its partners.

Its core technology is “de novo antibody design,” which involves designing antibodies with desired characteristics from scratch. Using clinically validated frameworks, the company generates new antibody sequences within one week; wet-lab validation takes approximately one month for typical targets and about six months for highly complex targets. The company’s average binder hit rate for antibodies—50 of which were designed for each of eight epitopes—was found to be 30%.

In particular, de novo antibody design technology represents a technical domain that the domestic AI-driven drug discovery industry had not yet secured, and it is recognized as a source of differentiated competitiveness even in the global market. The fact that the company became the first domestic AI-driven drug discovery firm to sign a joint development agreement with a global big pharma company (Boehringer Ingelheim) last year is also seen as proof of its global competitiveness.

At the time, Boehringer Ingelheim reportedly took note of the de novo antibody design research results announced by Galaxy in March of last year. Galaxy had previously published the relevant research through bioRxiv, a preprint platform where research results are made public prior to formal publication in academic journals. Although bioRxiv is a platform for publishing research that has not undergone peer review, it is recognized as the fastest channel for accessing the latest research trends.

In his presentation that day, Vice President Park expressed confidence in the company’s competitive edge against leading global firms and expressed hope for a long-term partnership with AstraZeneca. “The target coverage success rate of our de novo design platform is 89%, surpassing that of U.S.-based Navla Bio (56%) and Chai Discovery (44%),” he said. “I would like to express my gratitude to the AstraZeneca R&D and Business Development (BD) teams for their close collaboration during the joint research process. “I hope this collaboration will be successful, and I look forward to future opportunities and a long-term partnership,” he said.