Alivexis initiates joint research with Astellas Pharma on novel drug discovery targets.

Alivexis, Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Shun Kimura; hereinafter "Alivexis") is pleased to announce that on March 26, 2026, it entered into a second joint research agreement (hereinafter "the Joint Research") with Astellas Pharma Inc. (hereinafter "Astellas"). This follows a previous joint research project initiated in June 2024, for which Astellas exercised its option to acquire rights to the research results in September 2025.

In this Joint Research, the companies aim to discover new small molecule compounds and create innovative therapeutic drugs for drug discovery targets selected by Astellas by leveraging Alivexis's computational drug discovery platform, including ModBind™. In addition to in silico evaluation using the platform, Alivexis will be responsible for integrated drug discovery research, including the construction of multiple experimental systems and the design, synthesis, and evaluation of compounds. Astellas will acquire option rights regarding the research results.

【About ModBind™】

ModBind™ is a proprietary physics-based simulation technology developed by Alivexis that predicts the binding strength between small molecule compounds and target proteins with high speed and accuracy, and in an absolute manner, without the need for experimental biological activity data. Alivexis has already produced five clinical candidates using platform technologies such as ModBind™. Among these, MDI-0151 was out-licensed to a Swiss company in June 2024 for approximately 42.5 billion yen, demonstrating the broad technical utility of the platform.

Furthermore, in the third phase of "GENIAC (Generative AI Accelerator Challenge)," a project conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to strengthen domestic generative AI development capabilities, Alivexis successfully achieved a dramatic improvement in the predictive performance of conventional drug discovery generative AI models through "ModBind™xAI," which integrates ModBind™ into the AI learning workflow. This has added a new lineup to the company's platform. Alivexis is also conducting joint research with pharmaceutical companies centered on these platform technologies and has already achieved multiple results.

【Comment from Shun Kimura, Representative Director and CEO of Alivexis, Inc.】

"We are very pleased to announce the signing of our second joint drug discovery project with Astellas. In this partnership, we expect to accelerate the discovery of compounds for specific drug discovery targets by utilizing our unique and groundbreaking ModBind™ simulation technology. Through this project, we look forward to demonstrating the high utility of our technology and contributing to the discovery of new clinical candidates for diseases with high patient needs."

About Alivexis, Inc. Company Name: Alivexis, Inc. Headquarters: 7F Dai-ichi Hibiya Building, 1-18-21 Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo Representatives: Shun Kimura, Representative Director and CEO; Kazuki Ohno, Representative Director and COO Established: August 8, 2016 URL: https://alivexis.com Business Description: Cutting-edge drug discovery tech...