Noetik has achieved the first near-term milestone in its five-year strategic licensing and collaboration agreement with GSK after delivering and deploying its OCTO-VC model inference and fine-tuning capabilities.
The milestone was triggered after Noetik met testing criteria for the technology, which GSK is using in research involving non-small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer. The collaboration was announced in January 2026 and included $50 million in upfront capital as well as near-term milestone payments.
Under the original agreement, GSK received a non-exclusive license to Noetik’s OCTO-VC models in the two cancer settings. The companies’ arrangement uses a subscription-based model in which GSK pays upfront capital and ongoing fees to access Noetik’s AI models, rather than acquiring individual drug candidates.
Noetik develops biological foundation models trained on hundreds of millions of spatially resolved human cells. The company said its dataset is among the largest spatial biology datasets in oncology.
The OCTO-VC models are designed to simulate gene expression, cell states and tumor-immune interactions. Noetik said the technology can allow researchers to generate data for hypothesis exploration more rapidly, potentially speeding learning cycles in cancer research.
GSK teams are using the models to conduct virtual cell experiments, study patient stratification and add multimodal predictions to hematoxylin and eosin, or H&E, data, Noetik said.
Kim Branson, GSK’s chief AI officer, said the achievement shows that the models can be fine-tuned with a relatively small amount of GSK-specific data to generate accurate and targeted predictions.
Branson said integrating the technology into GSK’s learning system could deepen understanding of disease mechanisms and support identification of potential drug-development targets.
Ron Alfa, Noetik’s chief executive officer and co-founder, said the company established OCTO-VC to address the gap between promising laboratory findings and therapies that may work in patients. He said Noetik’s focus is on applying AI to biology and patient selection to support therapeutic decision-making.
Noetik Chief Business Officer Shafique Virani said the company expects to pursue additional milestones under the agreement.
Noetik is an artificial-intelligence company focused on oncology. It said its foundation models are intended to help match therapeutic targets with patient populations, support target discovery and predict clinical efficacy.
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