Insider Brief
- Shuttle Pharmaceuticals has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire artificial intelligence firm Molecule.ai for $10 million in cash and stock.
- The acquisition aims to integrate Molecule.ai’s platform, which uses large language models and agentic AI to accelerate drug discovery and molecule evaluation.
- Under the agreement, Molecule.ai will expand its platform to include drug-target interaction modeling and autonomous AI workflows for end-to-end therapeutic design.
PRESS RELEASE — Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SHPH) (“Shuttle Pharma” or the “Company”), a discovery and development stage specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced the execution of a non-binding letter of Intent with Molecule.ai.
Molecule.ai, a pioneering artificial intelligence company founded by AI scientist and researcher Dr. ZT Zhang, PhD, today announced the execution of a letter of Intent to acquire Molecule.ai and its state-of-the-art platform designed to transform the way pharmaceutical and biotech companies discover and develop new therapeutics.
By leveraging advanced machine learning models, including large language models (LLMs), Molecule.ai delivers industry-leading accuracy and efficiency in evaluating novel molecules. The platform enables researchers to shorten development timelines, reduce costs, and increase the likelihood of identifying successful therapeutic candidates.
“Our vision is to empower scientists with the most advanced AI-driven tools to push the boundaries of drug discovery,” said Dr. ZT Zhang, Founder and CEO of Molecule.ai. “With Molecule.ai, we are not just accelerating the process — we are fundamentally changing what’s possible in the search for new therapies.”
The Molecule.ai platform introduces several groundbreaking capabilities:
- Molecule Property Prediction and Reasoning – Rapid and large-scale evaluation of chemical and biological properties across massive compound libraries, including novel and previously uncharacterized molecules.
- Drug-Target Interaction Modeling – A powerful new feature that identifies and optimizes molecule-target interactions, paving the way for more precise therapeutic design.
- Agentic AI Mode – An autonomous framework that enables AI agents to perform multi-step drug discovery workflows, from compound screening through optimization, significantly reducing manual effort.
With these innovations, Molecule.ai positions itself as a trusted partner for pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations aiming to accelerate discovery and bring life-saving treatments to market faster.
Terms of the non-binding letter of Intent are as follows:
Shuttle will acquire all of the rights, title and interests Molecule.ai has free and clear of all liens.
Shuttle will assume all liabilities in respect of Molecule.ai and at Closing (as defined below), Molecule.ai shall have no further obligations or liabilities thereunder.
Molecule.ai will extend the current AI model and platform to support Drug-Target Interaction.
Molecule.ai will add first version of Agentic AI mode that enables an automatic workflow for drug discovery.
Molecule.ai will serve as lead liaison and headhunter, leveraging its relationships in the artificial intelligence community to recruit additional employees and strengthen the team.
Consideration:
As consideration for the purchase and the Transaction, and Shuttle’s assumption of its obligations and liabilities, Shuttle shall pay to Molecule.ai, at closing, a purchase price of $10 million payable, subject to the completion of the milestones, in a combination of cash and common shares of Shuttle. Consideration will be paid to Molecule.ai based upon certain milestones to be determined by both parties.
