BioNTech and InstaDeep announced on monday that they have entered into an agreement under which BioNTech will acquire InstaDeep, a leading global technology company in the field of artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning (“ML”). The transaction includes a total upfront consideration of approximately £362 million in cash and BioNTech shares to acquire 100% of the remaining InstaDeep shares, excluding the shares already owned by BioNTech.
In addition, InstaDeep shareholders will be eligible to receive additional performance-based future milestone payments of up to approximately £200 million. The transaction follows BioNTech’s initial equity investment as part of InstaDeep’s Series B financing round in January 2022.
The acquisition supports the strategy to build world-leading AI-driven drug discovery capabilities and develop next-generation immunotherapies and vaccines to address diseases with high unmet medical needs.
The transaction will combine two organizations with a common culture. It will add approximately 240 highly skilled professionals to the workforce, including AI, ML, bioengineering, data science, and software development teams. Through the acquisition, the company will grow its network of global research collaborators and expand its footprint in crucial talent hubs across the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
With the acquisition of InstaDeep, validated and novel BioNTech-trained AI- and ML-based models are planned to be embedded across BioNTech’s discovery platforms and connected, through InstaDeep’s DeepChain™ platform, to an integrated automated lab infrastructure.
This aims to enable large-scale high-throughput design and testing of novel drug candidates. In addition, BioNTech plans to develop novel AI and ML technology solutions which it seeks to apply across critical strategic and operational functions.
The acquisition builds on a successful track record of increasing collaboration between the two companies since 2019: In November 2020, the companies announced a multi-year strategic partnership and joint AI Innovation Lab to apply for the latest advances in AI and ML technology to develop novel medicines for a range of cancers and infectious diseases.
The companies have jointly developed multiple end-to-end AI-based applications trained on public and proprietary datasets across various scientific domains. These include projects to enhance neoantigen selection, ribological sequence optimization for BioNTech’s RiboCytokine® and RiboMab® platforms, well as the development of an Early Warning System to detect and monitor high-risk SARS-CoV-2 variants based on their ability to escape immune defences and transmissibility potential, defined as fitness, which was announced in January 2022.
“Since the inception of BioNTech, we have focused on leveraging computational solutions to create personalized immunotherapies that can reach a wide patient population,” said Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech. “The acquisition of InstaDeep allows us to incorporate the rapidly evolving AI capabilities of the digital world into our technologies, research, drug discovery, manufacturing, and deployment processes. Our aim is to make BioNTech a technology company where AI is seamlessly integrated into all aspects of our work.”
BioNTech recognized the growing importance of AI and ML capabilities early on. For example, the fully individualized neoantigen-specific immunotherapy approach (“iNeST1”) is based on mRNA encoding multiple patient-specific neoepitopes. For the first patients treated with an individualized vaccine in clinical trials starting in 2014, BioNTech selected the neoepitopes manually. It invested early in developing ML-trained algorithms to improve the prediction of neoepitopes, with initial results published in Nature in 2017. These algorithms have been further enhanced in collaboration with InstaDeep.
“AI is progressing exponentially and our mission at InstaDeep has always been to make sure it benefits everyone. We are very excited to join forces and become one team with BioNTech, with whom we share the same culture of deep tech innovation and focus on positive human impact,” said Karim Beguir, CEO and Co-Founder of InstaDeep. “Together, we envision building a world leader that combines biopharmaceutical research and AI with the aim to design next-generation immunotherapies that enhance medical care – thus, helping fight cancer and other diseases.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon closing, InstaDeep will operate as a UK-based global subsidiary of BioNTech. InstaDeep is expected to become the centrepiece of a growing portfolio of initiatives around AI and ML at BioNTech. In addition to BioNTech-focused projects, InstaDeep will continue to provide its services to clients worldwide in diverse industries, including the Technology, Transport & Logistics, Industrial, and Financial Services sectors.
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