Variational AI will use its Enki™ platform to deliver new lead series for an undisclosed SK Life Science Labs discovery program
VANCOUVER, Canada, and KING OF PRUSSIA, Pennsylvania, 20th of October, 2026 – Variational AI, a generative AI drug discovery company, today announced a collaboration with SK Life Science Labs, the U.S.-based discovery research subsidiary of SK Biopharmaceuticals to apply Variational AI’s proprietary Enki™ platform to generate novel lead compounds for an undisclosed program.
Under the agreement, Variational AI will use Enki™ to design novel molecular structures tailored to SK Life Science Labs’ target product profile. SK Life Science Labs will synthesize and test the most promising designs and lead all subsequent development.
“SK Life Science Labs brings deep drug-hunting expertise and a clear vision for next-generation therapeutics,” said Handol Kim, CEO of Variational AI. “Discovery teams today are judged on how quickly they can reach compounds that satisfy every element of a demanding target product profile at once. That multi-parameter challenge is exactly what Enki™ was built for, and we look forward to showing what generative design can do alongside one of the most focused discovery teams in the field.”
“Finding novel, high-quality starting points quickly is one of the most important levers in early discovery,” said Ryan Kruger, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at SK Life Science Labs. “Variational AI’s Enki’s ability to rapidly design novel molecules against a demanding target product profile complements our in-house drug-hunting expertise and offers a faster path to promising leads for challenging targets.”
Variational AI’s Enki™ drug discovery platform is based on a generative AI foundation model that designs novel, potent, selective, and synthesizable lead-like structures to meet partner-defined target product profiles. Pre-trained on more than 870 drug targets, Enki™ does not require any additional data to quickly design and optimize small-molecule therapeutics, warheads for PROTACs, molecular glues, as well as novel payloads for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
About SK Life Science Labs
SK Life Science Labs, with headquarters in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is a U.S. subsidiary of SK Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., a pioneering South Korean company in drug development and commercialization. SK Life Science Labs (formerly Proteovant Therapeutics) exploits the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) to discover and develop transformative medicines for the treatment of patients with life-altering diseases. Protein degradation harnesses the human body’s innate cellular machinery by way of the UPS to identify and mark disease-causing proteins for destruction. This promising approach provides the opportunity to target proteins of interest, many of which were previously considered undruggable. SK Life Science Labs integrates its AI-enabled target ID platform, degrader drug-hunting expertise, and MOPED™ molecular glue screening platform to advance novel protein degraders. For more information, please visit www.sklslabs.com.
About Variational AI
Variational AI is a generative AI drug discovery company based in Vancouver, Canada, founded by machine learning researchers from MIT, Caltech, Google Research, Microsoft Research, and D-Wave Quantum. Its proprietary Enki™ platform uses state-of-the-art generative AI models to accelerate lead generation and lead optimization with improved probability of success for pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners, including Merck (MSD), Rakovina Therapeutics, and 3C Therapeutics. For more information, visit variational.ai.
Media Contact:
Variational AI
Valentin Beuchillot,
Director BD & Marketing | valentin@variational.ai
SK Life Science Labs
Andy Fedoriw, PhD,
Director of Project Leadership & Business Development | afedoriw@sklslabs.com