Otsuka Pharmaceutical and ShapeTX formed a joint venture.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical, a healthcare company with a corporate philosophy, and ShapeTX, a programmable medicine company using AI and RNA to end genetic diseases, formed a joint venturet to develop intravitreally-delivered adeno-associated viruses for ocular diseases. Financial terms were not disclosed. “We’ve built our AAVid platform on generative AI approaches akin to those behind Midjourney and DALL-E 2 to tackle industry challenges with gene therapy delivery. By incorporating diffusion models, our platform is designing novel medicines that transcend the boundaries of what is possible experimentally. Our collaboration with Otsuka marks an exciting chapter in our journey as we extend the reach and impact of our technologies to help as many patients as possible,” Francois Vigneault, ShapeTX Co-Founder and CEO.