Alivexis Launches New Joint Drug Discovery Research with Astellas Pharma on Novel Drug Targets

Alivexis, Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director & CEO: Shun Kimura; hereinafter "the Company") announces that on March 26, 2026, it entered into a second joint research agreement (hereinafter "this Joint Research") with Astellas Pharma Inc. (hereinafter "Astellas"), following their previous collaboration conducted from June 2024, in which Astellas exercised its option right to acquire rights to research outcomes in September 2025.

This Joint Research aims to identify novel small-molecule compounds targeting drug discovery target molecules selected by Astellas, utilizing the Company's computational drug discovery platform including ModBind™, with the goal of creating innovative therapeutics. In this collaboration, the Company will be responsible for integrated drug discovery research encompassing in silico evaluation using its computational platform, as well as the construction of multiple experimental systems, and the design, synthesis, and evaluation of compounds. Astellas will obtain an option right to acquire rights to the research outcomes.

About ModBind™

ModBind™ is a physics-based simulation technology independently developed by the Company that rapidly and accurately predicts — in absolute terms and without experimental bioactivity data — the binding affinity between small-molecule compounds and target proteins. Leveraging ModBind™ and its other platform technologies, the Company has already generated five clinical candidate compounds, including MDI-0151, which was out-licensed to a Swiss company for approximately 42.5 billion yen in June 2024, widely demonstrating the technology's utility. Furthermore, in the third phase of "GENIAC (Generative AI Accelerator Challenge)," a project implemented by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) aimed at strengthening domestic generative AI development capabilities, the Company successfully achieved a dramatic improvement in the predictive performance of conventional generative AI models for drug discovery by incorporating ModBind™ into an AI training workflow as ModBind™xAI, adding a new lineup to the Company's platform. The Company 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 & CEO of Alivexis, Inc.

"I am very pleased to announce the signing of our second joint drug discovery project with Astellas. In this collaboration, we expect to accelerate the discovery of compounds against specific drug discovery targets by leveraging our unique and groundbreaking ModBind™ simulation technology. Through this project, we look forward to further demonstrating the high utility of our technology and contributing to the discovery of new clinical candidate compounds for diseases with significant unmet patient needs."

About Alivexis, Inc. Company Name: Alivexis, Inc. Headquarters: 7F, Daiichi Hibiya Building, 1-18-21 Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo Representative: Representative Director & CEO Shun Kimura, Representative Director & COO Kazuki Ohno Founded: August 8, 2016 URL: https://alivexis.com Business: Cutting-edge drug discovery technology...