Precision Oncology Innovator SimBioSys and General Inception Announce Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Cancer Drug Development

PhenoScope can cut drug development time and costs significantly, while delivering safer & more effective therapy for cancer patients

It can provide more precise patient dosing to reduce side effects, increase efficiency and reduce wastage

CHICAGO & PALO ALTO, Calif., April 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SimBioSys, a leading innovator in precision oncology, and General Inception ("GI"), a global company Igniter, today announce a strategic partnership that aims to significantly reduce oncology drug development times and cut development costs by using AI and biophysical modeling to better understand unique tumor spatial biophysical characteristics.

PhenoScope, SimBioSys' powerful proprietary technology and service, can analyze vast fields of multi-modal data seamlessly, generating novel insights, including unique spatial biophysical insights in 4-dimension space, for cancer drug discovery and development which are not apparent by looking at one type of data alone. Drawing on SimBioSys' data of more than 12,000 individual cancer patient profiles in 33 solid cancers, and a virtual tumor bank of more than 20,000 spatially resolved tumors, equivalent to more than 100 terabytes of proprietary data, PhenoScope can be used in drug development to predict personalized patient response over time, including drug binding and metabolic response, as well as dosing capabilities across every scenario and delivery.

GI, founded in 2020, is a venture studio with a portfolio of over 40 companies, 10 of which are therapeutics, to which it expects to add up to eight new therapeutics every year for the next five years. 

PhenoScope will enable a deep phenotyping of tumor biology and identification of sets of biomarkers with high predictive value, providing a varied toolkit that is useful across the whole spectrum of drug development, from spotting novel biomarkers for new drugs, to identifying the patients most likely to benefit, guiding on indication selection and combination selection, to identifying the likely optimal therapeutic dose before a clinical trial starts – known as 'precision dosing'. 

Better patient dosing will not only increase efficacy but most importantly reduce unwanted side effects that impact that patient significantly and adds cost to the healthcare system.  The growing importance of this is reflected in the US Food and Drug Administration's Oncology Center of Excellence's Project Optimus, an initiative to reform dose optimization and dose selection paradigm in oncology drug development.

Drug development in oncology is at high levels, with more than 2,000 products currently under development and drug trial starts up 22% in 2022 from 2018. Emerging biopharma companies account for 71% of this pipeline. Spending on cancer medicines is expected to reach $375Bn globally by 2027, up from $196Bn in 2022.[1]

Venkat Reddy, Chief Scientific Officer of General Inception, said: "This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of more effective, personalized cancer therapies, as all new oncology drug incubations under General Inception will be able to use SimBioSys' state-of-the-art PhenoScope platform and drug development services. More efficient target identification, credentialing, and clinical positioning will significantly reduce the time it takes to get to the clinic and improve efficacy through patient stratification, precision medicine approaches, and other means. Under this agreement, General Inception's incubated companies will have the ability to accelerate their pipelines thanks to these advanced capabilities."

Tushar Pandey, Chief Executive Officer of SimBioSys, said: "Together, we are committed to introducing much-needed precision to the drug development process. By partnering with General Inception, we can cut their oncology drug development time and costs significantly. Not only will that reduce program costs but also increase efficacy and reduce patient side effects through better dosing. This strategic relationship not only underscores our commitment to innovation in the fight against cancer but also promises to deliver groundbreaking precision oncology drugs to patients faster than ever before."

About SimBioSys, Inc.

SimBioSys is a pioneering TechBio company harnessing the power of spatial biophysics with artificial intelligence and biophysical modeling to redefine precision medicine, revolutionize patient care and defeat cancer. By seeing cancer more completely, SimBioSys aims to empower clinicians, patients, and researchers with a more informed understanding of a patient's tumor to optimally assess all available options and deliver on the promise of truly individualized patient care. To learn more, visit us at https://www.simbiosys.com/.

About PhenoScope

PhenoScope is SimBioSys' innovative cancer research solution. The platform enables multi-model data integration, includes a comprehensive virtual tumor bank and utilizes SimBioSys' proprietary 4D Tumor Response Prediction Engine to generate novel insights for discovery and clinical development. It allows for multi-scale data alignment (e.g. multi-omics, digital pathology, imaging) to uncover insights otherwise not apparent at single scales. The 3D tumor bank has a vast collection of spatially resolved tumor models, including AI-segmented imaging, digital pathology, sequencing and real-world outcomes data. It can perform deep phenotyping of tumor biology and physics to develop pathway activity insights and project tumor response to therapy over time. To learn more about PhenoScope, visit https://simbiosys.com/phenoscope/.

About General Inception

General Inception (GI) is pioneering company creation as an Igniter company. General Inception partners with extraordinary scientific founders at the inception of their journey to efficiently translate their groundbreaking innovations into transformational companies that address humanity's grand challenges. As a business co-founder, GI brings together domain and functional expertise, executive talent, infrastructure and development resources, and capital to ignite, nurture and scale the company journey. GI is backed by leading venture capital firms Genoa Ventures, Hughes Ventures, Northpond Ventures, OMX Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, and Vertical Venture Partners.

For more information, please visit https://www.generalinception.com/.

[1] Source: Global Oncology Trends 2023 - IQVIA