Elix Provides AI Drug Discovery Platform “Elix Discovery™” to Eisai

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 17, 2025--

Elix, Inc. (CEO: Shinya Yuki / Headquarters: Tokyo; hereinafter “Elix”) is pleased to announce that its AI drug discovery platform, Elix Discovery™ ( https://www.elix-inc.com/platform/ ), has been adopted by Eisai Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo; hereinafter “Eisai”).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250715531249/en/

Traditional drug discovery involves identifying promising compounds from vast numbers of candidates, which leads to long development timelines, high costs, and low success rates—major challenges in pharmaceutical R&D. The application of AI technologies to drug discovery is expected to address these challenges and dramatically improve the efficiency of the process. In particular, AI-driven molecular design and profile prediction enable efficient design of promising drug candidate compounds and narrowing down synthesis and evaluation targets, thereby accelerating the entire discovery process.

Elix is a Japan-based AI drug discovery company with a mission to "Rethinking drug discovery," providing services to pharmaceutical companies, universities, research institutions, and biotech startups. Our flagship AI software platform, Elix Discovery™, launched in 2022, was developed under the concept of “truly usable by medicinal chemists.” *¹

Elix Discovery™ features an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) that enables automatic construction of optimal compound profile predictive models. It includes advanced structure generation capabilities with the strength of proposing molecular structures that “humans would not conceive.” The platform allows for fast compound design by optimizing various parameters, including predictive models created on the GUI, through the use of carefully selected generative models including Elix’s proprietary models. It also supports Ligand-Based Drug Design (LBDD) and Structure-Based Drug Design (SBDD) methods, including docking simulations, offering users the flexibility to test a wide range of approaches.

In addition to providing this platform, Elix aims to contribute to the creation of innovative drug candidates through joint research projects with partner companies, leveraging its extensive experience and expertise in combination with the latest AI technologies. * 2 Notably, Elix Discovery™ offers plans that include multiple AI models trained using data from 16 pharmaceutical companies. For details, please refer to the July 15, 2025 press release. *³

Comment from Taro Terauchi, Head of Integrated Chemistry, Eisai

Eisai has been working to integrate the small-molecule drug-discovery expertise we have cultivated over many years with cutting-edge AI technology. We expect that the introduction of Elix Discovery™ will further accelerate this integration and drive major innovation in the drug-discovery process. Going forward, we will continue to advance AI-powered molecular design to deliver even greater value to patients.

Comment from Shinya Yuki, CEO of Elix

We are honored that Eisai, one of Japan’s leading pharmaceutical companies, has adopted our AI drug discovery platform, Elix Discovery™. Designed from the outset to maximize researchers’ capabilities on the concept that “medicinal chemists can truly use it,” we believe that the combination of our cutting-edge AI technology with Eisai’s extensive drug discovery expertise and exceptional research capabilities will accelerate the creation of innovative new medicines. We look forward to collaborating with Eisai to shape the future of drug discovery together.

References:

*¹ July 15, 2022 press release: “Elix launches “Elix Discovery™,” the only all-in-one platform that provides everything needed for AI drug discovery, from models for property prediction and molecular design to AI consulting and implementation support”
URL: https://www.elix-inc.com/news/newsrelease/1620/

*² April 15, 2025 press release: “Elix and PRISM BioLab Join Forces to Accelerate AI-Driven Drug Discovery for Challenging Protein-Protein Interaction Targets”
URL: https://www.elix-inc.com/news/news-release/2117/

*³ July 15, 2025 press release: “Elix and LINC Become the First in the World to Commercialize an AI Drug Discovery Platform Incorporating Federated Learning-Based AI Models Trained on Data from 16 Pharmaceutical Companies”
URL: https://www.elix-inc.com/news/news-release/2166/

About Eisai

Eisai’s Corporate Concept is “to give first thought to patients and people in the daily living domain, and to increase the benefits that health care provides.” Under this Concept (also known as our human health care ( hhc ) Concept), we aim to effectively achieve social good in the form of relieving anxiety over health and reducing health disparities. With a global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to create and deliver innovative products to target diseases with high unmet medical needs, with a particular focus in our strategic areas of Neurology and Oncology.
In addition, our continued commitment to the elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which is a target (3.3) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is demonstrated by our work on various activities together with global partners.
For more information about Eisai, please visit www.eisai.com (for global headquarters: Eisai Co., Ltd.), and connect with us on X, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About Elix

Elix is an AI drug discovery company with a mission to “Rethinking drug discovery.” Visit https://www.elix-inc.com/ for more details. If your organization is interested in learning more about Elix Discovery™, please feel free to contact us via the details below.

Elix Discovery™ Image

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV will personally carry the wooden cross through all 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on his first Good Friday as pontiff, marking the first time in decades that a pope carries the cross to every station.

“I think it will be an important sign because of what the pope represents, a spiritual leader in the world today, and for this voice, that everyone wants to hear, that says Christ still suffers,” Leo told reporters this week outside of the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo. “I carry all of this suffering in my prayer.”

John Paul II carried the cross for the entire procession from his first Good Friday as pontiff in 1979 until his hip surgery in 1995, when he carried it just part of the way, according to AP reports at the time.

For the first two years of his papacy, Benedict XVI carried the cross for the first station inside the Colosseum, then followed other bearers in the procession that ends on a platform on the Palatine Hill.

Pope Francis never carried the cross, but participated in the procession until his health worsened. He died after a long illness last year on Easter Monday, which fell on April 21.

Pope John Paul II was just 58 when he became pope, and was known as a hiker and outdoorsman. His two successors were in their late 70s when they began their papacies, and Francis was missing part of a lung due to a pulmonary infection as a young man.

At 70, Leo is physically fit and an avid tennis player and swimmer. Before becoming pope, Leo would work out regularly at a gym near the Vatican, with a plan befitting a man in his early 50s, according to his former trainer.

Crowds are expected to gather outside of the Colosseum for the Way of the Cross, which commemorates the final hours of Jesus’ life, from his death sentence to taking up the cross to his crucifixion, death and burial. The procession ends outside the Colosseum atop the Palatine Hill.

The meditations, which are read aloud at each station, were composed by the Rev. Francesco Patton, who was custos (or custodian) of the Holy Land 2016-25, charged, among other things, with looking after sacred sites

“The Way of the Cross is not intended for those who lead a pristinely pious or abstractly recollected life,” Patton wrote in his introduction. “Instead, it is the exercise of one who knows that faith, hope and charity must be incarnated in the real world.”

On Holy Saturday, the pontiff will preside over Easter vigil rites at St. Peter’s Square and lead Roman Catholics into Christianity’s most joyous celebration marking Christ’s resurrection.

On Easter Sunday, the pope will celebrate an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square before delivering his Easter message and offer the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to the city (of Rome) and the world.

Pope Leo XIV attends the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Catholic Good Friday, Friday, April 3, 2026 (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV attends the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Catholic Good Friday, Friday, April 3, 2026 (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)