Iambic Therapeutics’ AI-discovered cancer drug shows promise in early-stage trial

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By Sneha S K

(Reuters) -Iambic Therapeutics said on Monday early-stage data of its experimental drug showed anti-tumor activity in heavily pretreated cancer patients with mutations in the HER2 gene.

The drug IAM1363, discovered using the company’s artificial intelligence platforms, was also the first to reach early-stage trial. The drug showed promise in patients with HER-2 mutated lung, breast, renal cell cancer and ovarian cancers, the company said.

Abnormal HER2 genes, which can lead to excess production of certain proteins, drive a wide range of cancers. The drug belongs to a class called tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which are used to target tumors with these mutations.

Initial clinical data showed 28% of patients with cancers that had not spread to the brain had a partial response to the drug, while the figure was 33% of patients with measurable brain tumors.

The data was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2025.

Iambic is now one of “a very small number” of AI-driven drug developers to get their product candidate into a clinical trial, Tom Miller, co-founder and CEO of Iambic, told Reuters in an interview.

“We went from the very first compound synthesized on this program all the way to finding the novel clinical candidate and doing all the necessary preclinical tests and getting it into clinic in less than two years. The industry average is six years.”

The company uses its platform “NeuralPLexer” to predict a three-dimensional structure of how molecules will bind to a potential target, and another called “Enchant” to help predict how a given drug will perform at the earliest stage of development, according to the company’s website.

The early-stage trial is ongoing, with another portion of the trial set to begin next year, Miller said.

(Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)