- Wednesday, February 25, 2026 @ 12:00 am
Helsinn Healthcare SA (Helsinn), a global pharmaceutical group focused on supporting patients with cancer and chronic diseases, and In Virtuo Laboratories SA (InVirtuoLabs), a Lugano-based drug discovery company specializing in AI-powered generative chemistry, today announced a strategic collaboration to discover and develop novel small-molecule therapeutics.
Under the terms of the agreement, Helsinn will provide InVirtuoLabs with access to a proprietary library of structurally diverse compounds, including validated hits with confirmed biological activity against an undisclosed therapeutic target. InVirtuoLabs will apply its generative chemistry platform, InVirtuoGEN, to design, optimize, and prioritize novel drug candidates. This approach enables efficient hit-to-lead progression by providing multiple chemically distinct starting points for optimization.
The collaboration aims to identify optimized lead compounds with drug-like properties, suitable for advancement into preclinical development for the proposed indications.
Gabriele Edoardo Braglia, Chief Business Officer and Deputy CEO of Helsinn, commented: “This collaboration with InVirtuoLabs represents an important step in Helsinn’s commitment to accelerating innovation through cutting-edge technologies. By combining our long-established pharmaceutical expertise with next generation AI driven drug discovery, we are opening new avenues to deliver meaningful therapeutic solutions to patients worldwide.”
Gianvito Grasso, Founder & CEO of InVirtuoLabs, added: “For a young startup like InVirtuoLabs, an R&D agreement with a pharma company is rather rare. We hope to leverage this opportunity to showcase our technological superiority and our state-of-the-art foundational model in Generative Chemistry that generates impactful outcomes. This agreement is a testament to the trust and vison of Helsinn to innovate through AI-based drug discovery process.”
