Belfast-based drug discovery technology company AMPLY Discovery has secured strategic investment from Keeps Biomed, a subsidiary of South Korean specialist biotech company Keeps Biopharma, according to a Belfast News Letter report.

The investment includes an agreement between the companies to explore future collaboration opportunities in oncology drug discovery. AMPLY simultaneously announced the appointment of Dr Oliver Rausch as chief scientific officer, who joins from Storm Therapeutics with expertise in RNA biology and oncology drug discovery.

AMPLY's platform applies artificial intelligence to mine multi-omic datasets and uncover disease-relevant signals, including non-coding genomic regions, then validates findings through iterative laboratory testing. The approach enables rapid prioritisation of therapeutic programmes for pharmaceutical partnering arrangements.

"This strategic investment is an important endorsement of AMPLY's platform and our approach to oncology," said Dr Ben Thomas, chief executive officer of AMPLY Discovery. "We're building a company designed for partnering — generating high-quality, data-driven programmes and taking them to clear inflection points."

"We see significant opportunity in applying advanced AI-enabled discovery approaches to build a differentiated oncology pipeline," said Ha Young Kim, chief executive officer of Keeps Biopharma. "AMPLY's platform and team align strongly with our strategic direction, and we look forward to developing collaboration opportunities in oncology."

AMPLY was spun out of Queen's University Belfast and operates a portfolio model generating multiple discovery programmes in therapeutic areas of high unmet need. The company focuses on producing licensable assets and partnering opportunities at defined value-creation milestones, strengthening Northern Ireland's position in pharmaceutical research and development.

Read the complete details on AMPLY Discovery's strategic investment and leadership appointment in the full article.