Charles River and Valo Health Announce Strategic Partnership to Provide Clients with Access to AI-Enabled Drug Discovery Solutions

Rhea-AI Summary

Charles River Laboratories (CRL) and Valo Health have announced a multiyear strategic partnership to enhance drug discovery and development through AI. Utilizing Valo's Opal Computational Platform, the collaboration aims to optimize preclinical assets, addressing challenges like high costs and attrition rates. The initiative will integrate Valo's technological capabilities with Charles River's extensive drug development expertise, expediting processes from molecule design to IND submission. The combined offerings are set to launch in the first half of 2022 and will be exclusively available from Charles River.

Positive

• Partnership aims to enhance drug discovery and development through AI.
• Utilization of Valo's Opal Platform is expected to optimize preclinical assets.
• Integration of technological and scientific expertise may accelerate client discovery efforts.
• Launch of combined offerings planned for the first half of 2022.

Negative

• None.

Multiyear partnership will leverage Valo’s Opal Computational Platform to accelerate drug discovery and development

WILMINGTON, Mass. & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) and Valo Health, LLC (“Valo”), the technology company using human-centric data and computation powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to transform the drug discovery and development process, today announced the formation of a multiyear strategic partnership. This agreement will combine Valo’s Opal Computational Platform with Charles River’s drug discovery and development capabilities to offer a new transformative, AI-enabled drug discovery and development platform.

Recognizing the challenges of preclinical drug discovery, from high costs, time, and attrition rates, Valo and Charles River have joined forces to create enhanced drug discovery solutions that aim to transform the entire preclinical drug discovery process. Valo and Charles River intend to create and deliver offerings that produce preclinical assets with key performance characteristics optimized for client preferences.

The partnership’s combined offerings will utilize Valo’s Opal Platform for small molecule development, which leverages a “closed-loop” in silico-experimental platform that rapidly iterates using program data to identify novel compounds, and leverages Charles River’s capabilities in all aspects of discovery optimization, including medicinal chemistry, ADME, biology, pharmacology, and ultimately safety testing and IND submission.

The combination of Valo’s scientific innovation and deep technological expertise with Charles River’s end-to-end portfolio and industry-leading scientific bench has the potential to significantly accelerate a client’s discovery and development efforts by integrating data and compute to streamline and de-risk experimental science, enabling a faster and more effective process from de novo molecule design through lead optimization.

The combined offering will be launched in the first half of 2022 and will be available exclusively from Charles River.

Approved Quotes

• “Our collaboration with Valo is another step we’re taking toward accelerating drug discovery and development. By leveraging disruptive, AI-powered tools like Opal, we can support our clients in more quickly progressing their discoveries to the clinic.” – Birgit Girshick, Corporate Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Charles River
• “We are thrilled to partner with Charles River to build these enterprise solutions and deliver them to clients. We see this as an important opportunity to help drive a change in the industry and make a significant impact to deliver better drugs to patients faster - building off each of Valo’s and Charles River’s unique capabilities.” –David Berry, MD, PhD, Founder and CEO of Valo Health

About Valo Health

Valo Health, LLC (“Valo”) is a technology company built to transform the drug discovery and development process using human-centric data and artificial intelligence (“AI”) computation. As a digitally native company, Valo aims to full integrate human-centric data across the entire drug development lifecycle into a single unified architecture, thereby accelerating the discovery and development of life-changing drugs while simultaneously reducing the cost, time, and failure rate. The company’s Opal Computational Platform™ consists of an integrated set of capabilities designed to transform data into valuable insights that may accelerate discoveries and enable Valo to advance a robust pipeline of programs across cardiovascular metabolic renal, oncology, and neurodegenerative disease. Founded by Flagship Pioneering and headquartered in Boston, MA, Valo also has offices in Lexington, MA, San Francisco, CA, Princeton, NJ, and in Branford, CT. To learn more, visit www.valohealth.com.

About Charles River

Charles River provides essential products and services to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, government agencies and leading academic institutions around the globe accelerate their research and drug development efforts. Our dedicated employees are focused on providing clients with exactly what they need to improve and expedite the discovery, early-stage development and safe manufacture of new therapies for the patients who need them. To learn more about our unique portfolio and breadth of services, visit www.criver.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220119005073/en/

Charles River Investor Contact:

Todd Spencer

Corporate Vice President, Investor Relations

+1- 781-222-6455

todd.spencer@crl.com

Charles River Media Contact:

Amy Cianciaruso

Corporate Vice President & Chief Communications Officer

+1-781-222-6168

amy.cianciaruso@crl.com

Valo Health Investor Contact:

Graeme Bell

Chief Financial Officer

+1-267-326-2129

Gbell@valohealth.com

Valo Health Media Contact:

Jennifer Hanley

Vice President & Head of Corporate Communications

Jhanley@valohealth.com

Source: Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.

FAQ

What is the partnership between Charles River Laboratories and Valo Health about?

The partnership focuses on leveraging Valo's Opal Computational Platform with Charles River's drug discovery capabilities to enhance and accelerate the drug development process.

When will the combined offerings from Charles River and Valo Health be launched?

The combined offerings are expected to launch in the first half of 2022.

What is Valo's Opal Computational Platform?

Valo's Opal Computational Platform is an AI-powered system designed to optimize drug discovery by integrating human-centric data across the entire drug development lifecycle.

How will the partnership affect drug discovery processes?

The partnership aims to streamline and de-risk experimental science, potentially leading to faster and more effective drug discovery processes.