Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) and Atomwise, Inc. today announced the formation of a strategic alliance that offers clients access to Atomwise's artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, structure-based, drug design technology, which allows scientists to predict how well a small molecule will bind to a target protein of interest. By removing sole reliance on empirical screening, AI enables drug researchers to test an extremely large and diverse chemical space in a matter of days and move through the optimization process quickly by focusing only on those compounds predicted to have improved target-binding attributes.

This alliance combines two industry-leading drug discovery platforms: Atomwise's AI technology and Charles River's unique portfolio of end-to-end drug discovery and early-stage development capabilities and expertise. Leveraging Atomwise's AI technology and Charles River's integrated drug discovery platform has the potential to significantly streamline the hit discovery, hit-to-lead, and lead optimization process for clients' research efforts.

Through the collaboration, Charles River will have access to Atomwise's AI technology to use with their existing portfolio of drug discovery services. Atomwise's patented technology can analyze billions of compounds and screen challenging target proteins in the small molecule drug discovery process. The advantages of Atomwise's AI technology will provide Charles River's clients with the opportunity to efficiently screen billions, and evaluate thousands, of compounds to optimize potency, selectivity, and toxicity during hit and lead identification before committing resources to assays or syntheses.

As a result, Charles River's clients can expect increased efficiency and diversity in the drug discovery process, ultimately reducing the expected timeline for an integrated drug discovery project and expanding the chemical space examined.