Ventus Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing small-molecule therapies for immunological, inflammatory, and neurological disorders, has entered into a multi-year collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover and optimize novel small-molecule drug candidates using Ventus’ proprietary discovery platform, ReSOLVE.
The collaboration aims to address challenging disease targets across major therapeutic areas by leveraging advanced computational modeling and AI-driven drug design.
Ventus’ ReSOLVE integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning, structural biology, protein science, and biophysics to map precise, dynamic water networks in protein binding pockets. This results in the creation of a “hydrocophore”—a detailed blueprint that supports rapid lead identification and optimization for novel small-molecule drugs.
The technology enables discovery at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional screening processes.
Michael Crackower, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Ventus, stated:
“ReSOLVE uniquely models the structure of water in motion to better understand protein structures, thereby shortening the drug discovery timeline and accelerating patient benefit. Genentech is a world leader in drug discovery, responsible for bringing some of the most important medicines of our time to patients. We look forward to working together to discover breakthrough medicines.”
Under the collaboration, Ventus will apply ReSOLVE for virtual screening and lead identification across multiple targets. Genentech will subsequently oversee preclinical development, clinical evaluation, and commercialization of resulting drug candidates.
Ventus will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for additional preclinical, development, and commercial milestone payments totaling over $460 million, along with tiered royalties on future net sales.
The collaboration also allows Genentech to access ReSOLVE for other discovery initiatives within its pipeline.
Boris L. Zaïtra, Head of Roche Corporate Business Development, commented:
“Roche and Genentech continue to invest in breakthrough technologies that enable us to bring differentiated therapies to patients. Collaborating with companies like Ventus, which bring a unique computational approach to drug discovery, can help generate innovative medicines for long-standing challenging targets.”
ReSOLVE is a proprietary AI-powered small-molecule discovery platform capable of:
This approach allows rapid virtual screening of billions of compounds, identifying potent and structurally diverse leads efficiently. ReSOLVE is target- and disease-agnostic, applicable across multiple stages of drug discovery—from early target assessment to candidate nomination.
Ventus Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing small-molecule programmes targeting immunological, inflammatory, and neurological diseases. Its proprietary technologies are designed to accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutics by improving structural and computational understanding of complex biological targets.
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