CEO Daniel Haders, PhD, will highlight upcoming catalyst events for the company’s two lead assets: MDL-001, a first-in-class, universal, direct-acting therapeutic for influenza-like-illness (ILI) and chronic hepatitis, targeting the novel RdRp Thumb-1 site, and MDL-4102, a first-in-class therapeutic for various cancers and inflammatory diseases, targeting the epigenetic reader and master regulator of gene transcription, BRD4.
SAN
DIEGO
—
Model
Medicines
, an AI-first biotechnology
company developing first-in-class therapeutics against multi-indication
biological choke points, today announced that it will share its near-term
catalysts for its two lead assets at the 2026 BIO International Convention,
held June 22–25 at the San Diego Convention Center.
Model
Medicines will host partnering meetings throughout the convention and showcase
its end-to-end AI drug discovery platform and two lead drug candidates, MDL-001
and MDL-4102. Both programs are advancing toward regulatory filings in 2026 and
2027. Daniel Haders, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, will present
the company’s platform and pipeline during the convention.
Bio International
Convention 2026
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Time: 3:30 PM
Location: Theater 1
Engineering
First-in-Class, Pipeline in a Pill Programs
Model
Medicines engineers first-in-class, pipeline-in-a-pill therapeutics against
biological choke points. These targets share four key criteria: they are
structurally conserved, functionally essential, disease-driving, and have
multi-indication potential. Both lead candidates, MDL-001 and MDL-4102, originated
from GALILEO™, the company’s end-to-end design, discovery, and development
engine.
"Model
Medicines is moving faster than we thought possible. The proof is two
first-in-class medicines headed for regulatory filings in 2026 and 2027,"
said Daniel Haders, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Model
Medicines. "MDL-001 is positioned to become the world's first universal
ILI and chronic hepatitis antiviral, and MDL-4102 is succeeding against a
target that defeated an entire generation of inhibitors. The science behind the
programs is validated and published. We have reached an inflection point, and
we’re only accelerating."
A Universal ILI and Chronic Hepatitis Therapeutic: Aggregating a
Multi-Hundred Million Patient Population with Multi-Billion Dollar Revenue
Potential
Unmet
Medical Need:
Endemic viral
respiratory illnesses caused by influenza, RSV, and coronaviruses impose a
global disease burden of hundreds of millions of infections and hundreds of
thousands of deaths annually. Chronic hepatitis B and C infections persist in
254 million and 58 million people worldwide, respectively. No oral,
direct-acting antiviral is approved for more than one viral family, leaving
humanity vulnerable to the annual respiratory tripledemic, chronic hepatitis co-infections
and pandemics.
Target
Discovery
: The dominant view holds
that non-nucleoside antivirals cannot achieve cross-family activity because
allosteric sites are not conserved. Model Medicines overturned this assumption
by demonstrating that the RdRp Thumb-1 allosteric pocket is conserved across
ssRNA viral families. The company validated this conserved target with MDL-001,
the first Thumb-1 inhibitor shown to block multiple viral families.
Indications
and Market
: MDL-001 is being
developed across major respiratory infections, including influenza, COVID-19,
and RSV, as well as chronic hepatitis infections, including HCV, HBV, and HDV.
These indications represent an estimated combined global market opportunity
exceeding $30 billion annually.
Data
:
Model
Medicines has now completed the preclinical proof-of-concept package for
MDL-001, demonstrating nanomolar cross-family potency in the respiratory
tripledemic viruses and chronic hepatitis, and efficacy equivalent or superior
to approved standards of care in influenza, SARS-CoV-2, RSV, and hepatitis C.
Validation
: The virology program, the discovery of the RdRp
Thumb-1 site, and MDL-001 preclinical data have been peer-reviewed, accepted,
and showcased at IDWeek 2025
[1]
,
AASLD 2025
[2]
,
HepDART 2025
[3]
,
CROI 2026
[4]
,
ESCMID Global 2026
[5]
,
SERVC 2026
[6]
,
and EASL 2026
[7]
.
The full preclinical data readout for MDL-001 can be found
here
. The scientific foundation and preclinical findings for the discovery
of the conserved RdRp Thumb-1 pocket
[8]
and MDL-001
[9]
have been published.
Catalyst
: MDL-001 is currently completing IND-enabling
studies. IND submission is targeted for late 2026, with clinical trials to
commence in early 2027.
A
Transcriptional Regulation Program: Multi-Hundred Million Patient Population
and Multi-Billion Dollar Revenue Potential
Unmet
Medical Need
: BRD4 acts as a master
transcriptional regulator and drives pathology across a vast spectrum of
high-burden diseases where current therapeutic options are insufficient or
non-existent. Despite the clinical promise of epigenetic modulation,
high-mortality cancers remain aggressive and resistant to standard care. In
fibrosis, many conditions lack effective disease-modifying treatments capable
of halting or reversing disease progression. Broader applications extend to
indications in cardiovascular and immunology.
Target
History
: Previous development of BET
inhibitors has been systematically halted by dose-limiting toxicities,
specifically BRD3-mediated thrombocytopenia.
Market
: The ability to safely target BRD4 represents an estimated
global market opportunity exceeding $60 billion.
Data
: Class-leading selectivity index and therapeutic
index. The program successfully dissociates the therapeutic potential of BRD4
inhibition from the clinical toxicity that derailed predecessors. The discovery
of MDL-4102 is a direct result of Model Medicines' record-setting
325-billion-molecule ultra-large virtual screen conducted in 2025 with Google
Cloud.
[10]
Validation
:
The scientific foundation for the
targeting of BRD4 has been validated through the company’s publications.
[11]
Catalyst
: MDL-4102 is currently undergoing IND-enabling
studies. IND submission is targeted for 2027.
GALILEO™:
A Multimodal AI Discovery and Development Engine Redefining Scale and Novelty
GALILEO™
is a proprietary, end-to-end multimodal AI architecture that simultaneously
processes diverse biological and chemical data to navigate expansive molecular
spaces. By integrating advanced data pipelines, sophisticated modeling
techniques, and cutting-edge drug design, the platform effectively unlocks and
targets elusive, historically "undruggable" biological choke points.
This comprehensive approach allows Model Medicines to systematically collapse
traditional discovery timelines from years to months.
To
translate this massive data advantage into viable therapeutics, GALILEO™
deploys a sophisticated ensemble of generative AI models alongside zero-shot
machine learning techniques. Together, this ensemble empowers Model Medicines
to efficiently prioritize and optimize clinical-track assets with inherently
high multi-indication potential. The platform creates highly innovative,
structurally distinct drug candidates. This unique capability de-risks
early-stage development, avoids traditional clinical friction, and powers Model
Medicines' "pipeline-in-a-pill" strategy to solve the world's most
critical unmet medical needs.
Model
Medicines’ GALILEO™ platform has set new benchmarks in AI-driven discovery, and
chemical space exploration. The company has developed an ensemble of
specialized AI modules that each model a different facet of pre-IND testing. A
recently published example is AmesNet. This module predicts Ames mutagenicity
and delivered best-in-class performance on out-of-domain data, outperforming
approaches from the FDA (DeepAmes), MIT (ChemProp), Baidu Research (GROVER),
and the University of Sydney.
[12]
To demonstrate scale, in 2025, the platform executed the largest machine
learning-driven virtual screen in history, a 325-billion-molecule throughput
campaign that directly resulted in the identification of MDL-4102.
[13]
This success builds
upon GALILEO™’s generative capacity, which utilizes sophisticated ensemble models
to explore a chemical solution space exceeding 52 trillion compounds.
[14]
By combining this
extreme scale with high-fidelity predictive models, Model Medicines is
effectively collapsing discovery timelines from years to months, unlocking
therapeutically viable candidates within expansive chemical landscapes
previously thought unreachable.
About Model Medicines
Model Medicines is an AI-first
biotechnology company engineering first-in-class small molecules that target
the biological linchpins underlying disease. The company’s research spans
infectious disease, oncology, and inflammation, with programs designed around
conserved molecular choke points that drive multiple pathologies. Model
Medicines has discovered a direct-acting, non-nucleoside, broad-spectrum
antiviral (MDL-001) and a potent, selective, and novel BRD4 inhibitor
(MDL-4102). Its work demonstrates how large-scale computation can uncover
entirely new classes of drugs once thought unreachable. Model Medicines is
advancing a new generation of therapeutics that redefine what is possible in
modern drug discovery. Learn more at
.
Media Contact
Patrick O’Neill
Head of Partnerships &
Investor Relations
media@modelmedicines.com
[1]
MDL-001: A Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Targeting the
Thumb-1 Domain of Viral Polymerases, Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 13,
Issue Supplement_1, January 2026, ofaf695.084,
[2]
MDL-001 As A Next Generation HCV Thumb-1 inhibitor
With Clinical-Stage Safety, The Liver Meeting: 2025 Abstracts. (2025).
Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.), 82(S1), S1–S2308. Abstract 0088.
[3]
Oral Thumb-1 polymerase inhibitor MDL-001 achieves
preclinical HCV and HBV proof-of-concept, including HCV/HBV co-infection and
equivalence to sofosbuvir. Paper presented at: HEPDART 2025; December 7–11,
2025.
[4]
MDL-001, a novel oral thumb-1 polymerase inhibitor,
shows efficacy in HCV/HBV in vitro and in vivo. Paper presented at: Conference
on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI); February 22–25, 2026;
Denver, CO. Abstract 589.
[5]
MDL-001, an oral direct-acting Thumb-1 polymerase
inhibitor, demonstrates broad-spectrum activity against influenza viruses,
respiratory syncytial virus, and SARS-CoV-2 with oral proof-of-concept in mice.
Abstract presented at: ESCMID Global 2026; April 18, 2026; Munich, Germany.
Abstract 5803.
MDL-001, an oral direct-acting Thumb-1 polymerase inhibitor, demonstrates
single-agent efficacy against HCV/HBV co-infection in vitro, and achieves HCV
and HBV preclinical proof-of-concept. Abstract presented at: ESCMID Global
2026; April 18, 2026; Munich, Germany. Abstract 5778.
[6]
MDL-001, an oral direct-acting Thumb-1 polymerase
inhibitor, demonstrates broad-spectrum activity against influenza viruses,
respiratory syncytial virus, and SARS-CoV-2 with oral proof-of-concept in mice.
Paper presented at: the 18th Southeastern Regional Virology Conference (SERVC
2026), April 24–26, 2026.
[7]
MDL-001, an oral direct-acting Thumb-1 polymerase
inhibitor, demonstrates efficacy against HCV/HBV co-infection in vitro, and
achieves HCV and HBV preclinical proof-of-concept, including equivalence to
sofosbuvir, Journal of Hepatology, Volume 84, Supplement 1, May 2026, Pages
S877-S878, THU-580.
(26)02352-4/abstract
[8]
"The RdRp Thumb-1 Pocket is a Conserved Target
for Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Development
" bioRxiv, 2026, bioRxiv
[9]
"MDL-001: an Oral, Direct-Acting Universal
Antiviral for Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and Chronic Hepatitis."
bioRxiv, 2026, bioRxiv
[10]
Google Cloud. Google Cloud to host second-annual
Cancer AI Symposium in New York City [Internet]. New York: PRNewswire; 2025 Oct
30 [cited 2026 Feb 23]. Available from:
[11]
"ChemPrint: An AI-Driven Framework for Enhanced
Drug Discovery, 2024, bioRxiv
[12]
AmesNet: A Task-Conditioned Deep Learning Model with
Enhanced Sensitivity and Generalization in Ames Mutagenicity Prediction.
bioRxiv,
2026
.
[13]
"Record-Scale AI Screening with Model Medicines
on Google Cloud: GALILEO™ Achieves 325 Billion Molecule Throughput for Oncology
Drug Discovery." Model Medicines, 30 Oct. 2025.
[14]
GALILEO generatively expands chemical space and
achieves one-shot identification of a library of novel, specific, next
generation broad-spectrum antiviral compounds at high hit rates.
bioRxiv
,
2025.