Envisagenics CEO discusses $1B collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim

Boehringer: Boehringer Ingelheim is a German biopharmaceutical company with a strategic focus on oncology, pursuing innovative targets and modalities to address unmet needs in difficult-to-treat cancers and other diseases. It actively forms long-term partnerships to source novel therapeutic opportunities. In the news, Boehringer is partnering with Envisagenics to validate and potentially license RNA splicing-derived targets for development across modalities such as antibody-drug conjugates and T-cell engagers. Envisagenics: Envisagenics is a New York-based AI-driven biotech company that develops its SpliceCore platform to discover novel, disease-specific drug targets through analysis of alternative RNA splicing for applications in oncology and neurodegeneration. The company partners with larger biopharma firms to validate and advance these targets while maintaining its own internal pipeline. In the news, Envisagenics is central to the announced multi-year research collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim focused on tumor-specific targets for hard-to-treat cancers. Maria Luisa Pineda: Maria Luisa Pineda is the co-founder and CEO of Envisagenics, with expertise in RNA biology and the application of AI to drug discovery; she earned her Ph.D. from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory School of Biological Sciences. She has led the company in securing collaborations and advancing its platform since its founding. In the news, Pineda discusses the recent collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim and the company's strategy to harness AI for specialized medical therapies. Partnership Focus: The collaboration centers on validating previously identified targets from Envisagenics' platform for use in precision oncology therapies. Platform Approach: SpliceCore combines AI with large-scale transcriptomics and experimental validation to prioritize targets that are highly specific to disease states. Development Modalities: Validated targets may be applied by Boehringer across multiple therapeutic formats including antibody-drug conjugates, T-cell engagers, and multispecific antibodies.