Almirall and Absci Expand Collaboration to Accelerate AI-Powered Drug Discovery for Skin Diseases

Almirall, a global leader in medical dermatology, and Absci Corporation, a pioneering biopharmaceutical company in generative artificial intelligence (AI) for drug discovery, have announced the expansion of their strategic collaboration aimed at accelerating the development of novel therapies for skin diseases.¹ The announcement confirms Almirall’s selection of a second drug target in their ongoing AI Drug Discovery partnership with Absci, specifically focused on dermatological applications.

“Using advanced AI capabilities to design therapeutic candidates against historically challenging disease targets is a highly promising approach and Absci´s de-novo AI platform capabilities have already demonstrated early success,” said Karl Ziegelbauer, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Almirall. “We are pleased to expand our collaboration as we continue to harness AI to help us develop innovative treatments for patients living with severe skin conditions.”¹

This development builds upon the successful first phase of the collaboration, originally initiated in November 2023. During this initial stage, Absci delivered functional antibody leads designed using its proprietary generative AI technology, targeting a difficult-to-drug molecule implicated in dermatological disease. The achievement marks an important milestone in using AI to overcome limitations inherent in traditional drug discovery approaches.

“In our first program with Absci, we were able to generate functional antibody leads against a target that has resisted traditional drug discovery approaches. That’s a significant scientific milestone, and it gives us real confidence in the great potential of AI-enabled drug discovery and design. By adding a second program, we’re expanding the scope of the collaboration, and we’re advancing our capabilities to address some of the most challenging unmet needs in dermatology – in alignment with our leadership in medical dermatology,” Ziegelbauer told Dermatology Times.

Under the terms of the agreement, Absci will continue to leverage its Integrated Drug Creation platform, combining generative AI with wet lab validation, to design and optimize novel biologic drug candidates. Almirall will lead the preclinical and clinical development phases for each program. Absci stands to receive up to approximately $650 million in upfront payments, R&D milestones, and post-approval commercial milestones across both programs, in addition to royalties on future product sales. Absci combines deep learning models with synthetic biology with a pipeline that includes ABS-101, a novel antibody for inflammatory bowel disease, and ABS-201, a potential hair growth treatment for androgenetic alopecia.

“The progress in our collaboration is a testament that AI de novo drug design is a successful approach to unlock novel biology where traditional drug discovery approaches have failed,” said Sean McClain, founder and CEO of Absci. “We’re proud of this milestone and excited to deepen our collaboration with Almirall with the goal of bringing a new generation of AI-created therapeutics for dermatology patients.”¹

This expanded collaboration reflects both companies’ commitment to accelerating innovation in dermatology through the application of advanced computational tools. By targeting areas of unmet need, Almirall and Absci aim to deliver first-in-class biologics that could dramatically improve outcomes for patients living with chronic and difficult-to-treat skin diseases.

“AI is becoming an integral part of how we approach R&D in dermatology. Our collaboration with Absci shows how AI can open up new possibilities in drug discovery and design – in this case, designing entirely new antibody candidates to tackle difficult-to-treat diseases,” Ziegelbauer said about the role of AI in Almirall’s innovation strategy. “Collaborating with Microsoft, we’re applying advanced analytics and AI models to learn from vast biological datasets and potentially identify novel targets for our pipeline. And with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BCS), we’re using high-performance computing to model protein–protein interactions in unprecedented detail, enabling us to design more precise approaches and molecules. We designed the network of these partnerships to create a synergistic approach to the drug discovery process, and together they’re accelerating our ability to innovate to bring new treatments to patients for traditionally difficult-to-treat diseases.”

Reference

1. Almirall and Absci Expand AI Drug Creation Collaboration adding a Second Dermatology Target. Almirall. News Release. Published August 7, 2025. Accessed September 2, 2025. https://www.almirall.com/newsroom/news/almirall-and-absci-expand-ai-drug-creation-collaboration-adding-a-second-dermatology-target