Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- Standigm, a promising startup known for cutting-edge AI technologies applied to drug discovery, agreed with CJ HealthCare to jointly research and develop innovative anti-cancer drug candidates. The startup focuses on predicting new indications for existing drugs.

Under their partnership signed on Tuesday, Standigm will use AI platforms to find new compound structures, while CJ Healthcare, a drugmaker and bio company, will find new drug candidates through material composition and evaluation by 2021.

Standigm removes the traditional guesswork from data analysis by using AI, automatically examining whole biomedical databases to learn what is hiding just out of sight. Standigm is well known for its AI platforms such as Standigm BEST, a material optimization platform, and Standigm InsightTM, an indication and mechanism of action prediction platform.

Founded in 2015 by AI and systems biology experts, Standigm's growth potential has been acknowledged among pharmaceutical companies and secured a series of investments from investors, including 10 billion won ($8.5 million) from SK Holdings in November. Standigm has generated tens of drug candidates for cancers, Parkinson’s disease, autism, fatty liver diseases.

CJ HealthCare has stepped up the development of new drugs since it was acquired by Korea Kolmar, a beauty and pharmaceutical company, in February 2018, for 1.31 trillion won.