- Beiersdorf uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of novel and safe active ingredients
- New molecules for a specific skin indication to be generated and analyzed using next-generation artificial intelligence developed by Insilico Medicine
- Beiersdorf is a leader in the development and application of novel AI technologies to skincare and is collaborating with an ecosystem of startup companies
Hamburg, January 8, 2020 – Beiersdorf and Insilico Medicine, an artificial intelligence company developing end to end drug discovery pipelines, announced today that they are entering a collaboration to jointly discover novel, safe bioactive ingredients for a specific skin indication at an unparalleled pace, that will serve as the basis for developing appropriate skincare products.
“As part of our Open Innovation culture, we are always looking for new technologies and partners with strengths that complement ours. We are delighted to now be working with Insilico Medicine as a veritable expert when it comes to artificial intelligence. We are able to evaluate new active ingredients significantly more quickly and more efficiently by simulating biological effects in silico. This enables us to cater even better to the consumers’ as yet unmet skincare needs,” explains Dr. May Shana’a, Senior Corporate Vice President, Research and Development, at Beiersdorf.
Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine, is likewise excited about the joint effort: “We firmly believe there is a great potential in this collaboration. We worked with many consumer companies in the past and in my opinion, Beiersdorf became an undisputed leader in the area of skin research as well as in digital technologies in recent decades. We are delighted that they have recognized the potential of artificial intelligence early on and hope to demonstrate the power of AI going forward in our collaboration.”
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About Insilico Medicine
Insilico Medicine is an artificial intelligence company with offices in six countries and regions striving to accelerate three areas of drug discovery and development: disease target identification, generation of novel molecules (generative chemistry) and synthetic biological data (generative biology), and prediction of clinical trial outcomes. The Company was the first to apply the generative adversarial networks (GANs) and reinforcement learning (RL) to generate new molecular structures with the specified parameters in 2015. In addition to collaborating with large pharmaceutical companies, Insilico Medicine is also pursuing internal drug discovery programs in different disease areas. Recently, Insilico Medicine published a proof-of-concept study in generative chemistry in Nature Biotechnology, and secured $37 million in series B funding.
Website: //insilico.
About Beiersdorf AG
Beiersdorf AG is a leading provider of innovative, high-quality skincare products and has over 135 years of experience in this market segment. The Hamburg-based company has approximately 20,000 employees worldwide and is listed on the DAX, the German benchmark equities index. Beiersdorf generated sales of more than 7.2 billion euros in fiscal year 2018. The Beiersdorf product portfolio is characterized by strong, globally leading skincare and personal care brands such as the world’s number one skincare brand NIVEA, Eucerin, Hansaplast, and La Prairie. They impress millions of people around the world every day with their innovative and high-quality products. The extensive portfolio is complemented by other renowned brands like Labello, Aquaphor, Florena, 8X4, Hidrofugal, atrix, Maestro, and Coppertone. Beiersdorf’s wholly owned affiliate tesa SE, another globally leading manufacturer in its field, supplies self-adhesive products and system solutions to industry, craft businesses, and consumers.
Source: Euromonitor International Limited; NIVEA as umbrella brand in the categories Face Care, Body Care, and Hand Care; in retail value terms, 2018.
Contact:
Beiersdorf AG
Inken Hollmann-Peters
Vice President, Corporate Communications and Sustainability
Phone: +49-40-4909-2001
E-mail: cc@beiersdorf.com
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