Adalta Ltd Secures AI Platform to Pressure Test Drug Development Decisions
AdAlta secures AI-enabled platform to sharpen drug development decisions
AdAlta Limited (ASX:1AD), a developer of next generation cellular immunotherapies for solid cancers, has entered a strategic collaboration with Oktopi Pty Ltd, gaining access to the Oktopi Platform, an AI-enabled, software-as-a-service (SaaS) knowledge platform purpose-built to sharpen medicine development decisions.
Announced on 2 July 2026, the collaboration positions artificial intelligence as a potential competitive advantage supporting AdAlta’s ‘East to West’ strategy, aimed at improving the quality, efficiency and probability of success of its research and business development decisions.
When big ASX news breaks, our subscribers know first
Why the Oktopi collaboration matters for AdAlta
Developing a new medicine takes thousands of expert decisions across many specialist disciplines. Ensuring the right questions are asked at the right time has traditionally relied on a small number of senior experts and on costly, sequential consulting engagements.
The Oktopi Platform uses human-guided, AI-enabled workflows to help research teams plan their work, surface the most important questions at each stage of development, and spot gaps before they cause costly delays.
According to AdAlta, the anticipated benefits of the collaboration include:
-
Faster decision making and reduced risk
-
Higher quality research plans and regulatory documents
-
Improved scalability as additional assets are licensed
-
More efficient use of consultants through better selection and more focused engagement terms
Dr Kevin Lynch, Consultant Chief Medical Officer
“This collaboration is tremendously exciting for AdAlta. Being able to rapidly pressure-test our development plans — effectively having a broad committee of senior experts available on demand — is enormously powerful, especially at the first-in-human stage, where we must be sure we are asking the right questions and addressing critical gaps before committing to major investment. It will also help us get the best value from our specialist consultants. Combined with our in-house, Claude-based screening agent, AI is becoming a genuine competitive advantage in how we plan our research and choose the products that can most help patients facing fatal diseases.”
How the Oktopi Platform works
The Oktopi Platform is an AI-informed knowledge platform purpose-built for medicine development. It uses a structured, context and stage-gate specific list of questions and rubrics drawn from senior drug development subject matter experts across 12 functions and 350 expert domains, combined with AI-enabled review of internal product development plans and external regulatory and other guidelines.
The system helps small research and development (R&D) teams peer review their development plans, surfacing the right expert question at the right moment on every program. Importantly, the platform is described as human-guided rather than a ‘black box’, with outputs designed to show their rationale and source, and all decisions based on the peer review taken by the R&D team.
In a large, blinded study, senior independent experts rated Oktopi’s AI peer review responses as expert-level in 96.7% of cases, according to Oktopi data being prepared for publication.
On security and governance, the platform is built on AWS Bedrock and a globally distributed, multi-region cloud architecture designed for pharmaceutical-grade security, resilience and governance. Customer data remains private, isolated within each organisation’s environment, and is never used to train foundation models or future AI systems.
Building a suite of AI tools across the business
The collaboration builds on AdAlta’s in-house AI development. The Company previously created EMU, an AI agent built on Anthropic’s Claude, that rapidly produces fully referenced preliminary due diligence on potential in-licensing assets and scores them against AdAlta’s selection criteria.
This capability lets AdAlta screen many more opportunities, work that previously took weeks or months per asset, and systematically assess the universe of products suited to its ‘East to West’ strategy.
The distinction between the two tools is clear. Where EMU helps AdAlta choose the right products to in-license, Oktopi helps it plan and pressure-test their development. Together they strengthen both ends of AdAlta’s capital-efficient model: selecting the best assets, and developing them with greater rigour, speed and confidence.
| Tool | Built on | Function | Investor benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| EMU | Anthropic’s Claude | Screens and prioritises in-licensing assets | Screen many more opportunities faster |
| Oktopi Platform | AWS Bedrock | Pressure-tests development plans | Sharper, more auditable decisions |
AdAlta noted these tools are representative of a broader suite of AI-enabled solutions being evaluated for their potential to enhance clinical development and manufacturing operations.
Dr Craig Rayner AM, Oktopi Co-Founder & CEO
“We built Oktopi so that small, expert teams can pressure-test their development plans with the rigour of a full expert committee, on demand and on every program. AdAlta is exactly the kind of disciplined, science-led developer the platform is built for, and we are delighted to support its East to West strategy. Pairing Oktopi with AdAlta’s own Claude-based screening agent shows how AI, kept firmly under expert control, can improve both the selection of assets and the decisions that shape their development.”
The next major ASX story will hit our subscribers first
Next steps and what it means for the ‘East to West’ strategy
AdAlta expects these AI capabilities to add value quickly and across its whole portfolio, supporting sharper investment decisions, more efficient use of specialist consultants, and stronger readiness for the partnering discussions central to its strategy. The Oktopi Platform applies across all of AdAlta’s programs, and the Company intends to deepen its use of AI as these tools mature, while keeping its experts firmly in control of every decision.
Under the ‘East to West’ strategy, AdAlta in-licenses products from Asian originators, invests to establish US FDA-regulated manufacturing, conducts Phase I clinical studies, and positions each product for potential on-licensing to larger biopharmaceutical companies.
The Australian manufacturing agreement with Cell Therapies Pty Ltd advances a parallel strand of AdAlta’s capital-efficient model, with BZDS1901’s 2-day manufacturing process significantly faster than the 9-day standard for traditional CAR-T therapies and the facility intended to become AdAlta’s global reference site for out-licensing discussions.
BZDS1901 is a novel, first in class CAR-T cell therapy designed to treat mesothelioma, a rare but rapidly fatal cancer usually linked to asbestos exposure. Early clinical studies in China have reported up to a 50% Overall Response rate in relapsed or advanced patients, with the Company noting these early results suggest the therapy may offer a new treatment option for patients with few alternatives.
BZDS1901 clinical results from a 10-patient cohort in China recorded a 50% Overall Response Rate and two cases of full tumour clearance, with one patient remaining disease-free 18 months after a single dose, outcomes that underpin the program’s attractiveness to potential out-licensing partners.
For investors, the collaboration reflects AdAlta’s stated view that AI is becoming a genuine competitive advantage within its capital-efficient model. The Company is targeting the cellular immunotherapy market, which is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 34% to reach US$20.3 billion by 2028.
A video summary and further discussion of the announcement are available via AdAlta’s InvestorHub.
Want the Next Healthcare Breakout in Your Inbox?
Big News Blast delivers FREE breaking ASX healthcare and biotech news directly to your inbox within minutes of release, complete with in-depth analysis. Join 20,000+ subscribers already staying ahead of the market. Click the “Free Alerts” button at StockWire X to start receiving alerts the moment market-moving announcements drop.