Sanofi Bets on Baidu’s Algorithm to Develop mRNA-Based Therapeutics

Messenger RNA (mRNA)-based vaccines are the breakout technology from the COVID-19 pandemic. The technology was several years in the making, with companies like Moderna and BioNTech developing vaccines for many diseases. However, the technology received widespread validation during the pandemic and took these lesser-known companies to new heights.

Vaccine development is one of the many therapeutic applications for this technology since mRNA can deliver instructions to cells to produce antibodies, cytokines, and regenerative factors. Recently, Moderna and AstraZeneca presented promising results of their mRNA-based cardiac therapy in Phase 2 clinical trial. This highlights the potential of this technology. 

As companies like Moderna and BioNTech develop more mRNA-based therapeutics, other companies are fighting to ride the mRNA wave. Pre-pandemic, Sanofi was one of the largest vaccine makers worldwide. Unfortunately, Sanofi lost the COVID-19 race to market. In September, Sanofi announced it would drop its plans for its mRNA-based vaccine even after positive results from their Phase 1/2 clinical trials due to the market dominance of Moderna and BioNTech.

Yet, realizing the potential of mRNA technology, in June, Sanofi announced its plans to invest approximately €400 million annually in a first-of-its-kind vaccines mRNA Center of Excellence to accelerate the development and delivery of next-generation vaccines for diseases beyond COVID-19.

Now, Sanofi is investing in intelligent design to optimize its mRNA development platform. On November 22nd, it has announced a partnership with Chinese tech giant Baidu to integrate Baidu’s algorithms into their pipeline. The move marks Baidu’s first computational biology deal with a major drugmaker.

LinearDesign – An Advanced mRNA Algorithm

Back in 2020, Baidu created an mRNA design optimization platform known as LinearDesign. It is part of Baidu’s push to develop computational biology tools to accelerate drug discovery. 

LinerDesign builds upon two previous algorithms:

• LinearFold, the world’s fastest algorithm for RNA secondary structure prediction
• LinearPartition, the world’s fastest base-pairing probability prediction algorithm.

LinearDesign was the first created to design more stable and productive COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Their algorithm needs only 16 minutes to design an mRNA sequence with improved stability. 

Recently, Baidu, in collaboration with Stemirna Therapeutics, released the results of pre-clinical studies showing mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 made using LinearDesign outperformed sequences created using traditional algorithms in stability, protein expression, and immunogenicity. 

Capitalizing on these advantages, Baidu had entered a collaboration with Sanofi. The French pharma giant will leverage this tool to optimize sequences for human therapeutics and preventative uses. 

“The emerging mRNA technology has rapidly advanced the science of vaccine and drug development for infectious diseases like COVID-19,” said Tian Wu, Baidu Corporate Vice President. 

“We have already seen that combining mRNA with computational biology tools makes the process quicker and more effective and has the potential to further transform drug discovery. We are honored to partner with Sanofi, one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies, to bring life-saving mRNA therapies and vaccines to the global healthcare community.”

In an interview with Reuters, Huang Liang, a Baidu scientist leading the project, revealed that Baidu would receive milestone payments when an mRNA-based therapeutic discovered using LinearDesing enters clinical trials. Although, exact financial terms were not disclosed by either company. 

“The fact that this agreement includes milestone payments shows that [Sanofi] has great confidence in bringing candidates developed with Baidu algorithm into clinical trials and to the market,” Huang told Reuters. He declined to disclose the size of the deal.

Author

Daniel Ojeda