Lōkahi Therapeutics Expands ai2 Pipeline Program Through Partnership With Pepperdine E2B
Lōkahi Therapeutics™, a subsidiary of Glucotrack, Inc. (Nasdaq: GCTK), has announced a new collaboration with Pepperdine E2B™ (Education to Business) designed to connect graduate-level business education with real-world opportunities in the biopharmaceutical industry. Through the partnership, students from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School will participate in Lōkahi’s ai2 Pipeline™ initiative during the upcoming academic year, gaining practical experience in evaluating therapeutic assets while contributing to the company’s efforts to identify and assess potential additions to its pipeline.
The collaboration represents an expansion of Lōkahi’s ai2 platform, which combines human expertise, structured analysis, data, analytics, and technology to evaluate biopharmaceutical opportunities. Rather than limiting students to hypothetical business cases, the program will expose participants to actual therapeutic opportunities and the types of multidisciplinary considerations that influence investment, development, licensing, and strategic decisions across the life sciences sector.
The first phase of the Pepperdine collaboration will involve full-time MBA students enrolled in a marketing course taught by Professor Kimber Maderazzo at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. As part of the ai2 Pipeline™ program, student teams will work with Lōkahi professionals to examine potential therapeutic opportunities and develop recommendations based on a structured assessment process.
The project is expected to give students exposure to the complex decision-making involved in biopharmaceutical asset evaluation. Teams will consider a range of factors, including scientific rationale, regulatory considerations, intellectual property, commercial potential, competitive positioning, and broader strategic implications. These factors can play a significant role in determining whether an asset warrants additional diligence or could potentially fit within a company’s development and business strategy.
Connecting MBA Education With Biopharmaceutical Strategy
The partnership with Pepperdine E2B is designed to provide an applied learning experience in which students can translate concepts learned in the classroom into analysis of real-world business opportunities. The biopharmaceutical sector requires decisions that often span multiple disciplines, making it a setting in which business students can explore the interaction between science, commercialization, regulation, intellectual property, and corporate strategy.
For Lōkahi, the collaboration also provides an additional avenue for evaluating therapeutic opportunities. The ai2 Pipeline™ initiative is intended to broaden the company’s ability to identify assets that may warrant further consideration, while introducing participants to the analytical framework used to assess opportunities throughout the biopharmaceutical asset lifecycle.
Therapeutic assets can move through different stages of development and ownership as companies adjust research priorities, allocate capital, restructure portfolios, or pursue new strategic objectives. An asset that is no longer a priority for one organization may still have characteristics that make it potentially relevant to another company. Lōkahi’s approach is designed to examine such opportunities systematically rather than relying solely on traditional sourcing channels.
The company believes that some potentially valuable therapeutic opportunities may receive limited attention for reasons unrelated to their underlying scientific potential. Changes in corporate strategy, availability of funding, portfolio priorities, organizational restructuring, or shifts in market focus can influence whether a program continues to receive resources.
Through its ai2 platform, Lōkahi aims to combine technology-enabled analysis with human judgment to identify opportunities that may deserve additional evaluation. The Pepperdine partnership adds a university-based perspective to that process, giving students the opportunity to participate in a practical assessment of the factors that influence biopharmaceutical business decisions.
Expanding the ai2 Futures Lab Experience
The collaboration builds on Lōkahi’s previous experience with its ai2 Futures Lab™ program. During its first year, the initiative engaged 64 students and identified more than 45 potential assets. According to Lōkahi, several of those opportunities have subsequently progressed into active pipeline discussions.
The results provide a foundation for expanding the educational and sourcing model through additional university relationships. By engaging students in structured evaluation projects, Lōkahi seeks to increase both the reach of its asset-sourcing activities and the analytical capacity available for reviewing potential opportunities.
The company describes this approach as part of a disciplined and capital-efficient strategy for pipeline development. Rather than focusing exclusively on the creation of new therapeutic programs internally, Lōkahi’s model also considers opportunities that may already exist within the broader biopharmaceutical ecosystem.
Such an approach can involve examining assets at different stages of development and assessing whether their scientific and commercial characteristics align with potential strategic objectives. The evaluation process may require consideration of preclinical or clinical evidence, development requirements, regulatory pathways, intellectual property protection, competitive dynamics, market opportunities, and potential commercialization strategies.
For students, this creates an opportunity to understand how decisions in life sciences differ from conventional business-case exercises. A therapeutic asset cannot be evaluated solely on market size or financial potential; scientific evidence, clinical development requirements, regulatory risk, intellectual property considerations, and the ability to successfully commercialize a product can all influence its potential value.
Multidisciplinary Analysis of Therapeutic Opportunities
The ai2 Pipeline™ program is structured around this multidisciplinary approach. Participating students will work alongside Lōkahi professionals as they identify, evaluate, and prioritize opportunities.
The scientific component of the analysis can involve understanding the therapeutic rationale and available evidence supporting an asset. Regulatory considerations can include the development pathway and requirements associated with advancing a potential therapy. Intellectual property analysis can help determine the strength and scope of protections surrounding an asset, while commercial analysis can examine market dynamics, unmet needs, competition, and potential opportunities.
Strategic considerations provide another layer to the evaluation. Even an asset with promising scientific and commercial characteristics must fit within an organization’s broader objectives, capabilities, and resources. As a result, students will have the opportunity to explore how individual factors interact rather than treating them as isolated criteria.
This framework is intended to provide participants with a more comprehensive understanding of the decision-making process within biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies. It also demonstrates how business strategy and scientific innovation can intersect when companies evaluate potential therapies.
Brian Peters, SVP, ai2 Division, Lōkahi Therapeutics™, said Pepperdine students bring intellectual curiosity, analytical capabilities, and an entrepreneurial mindset that align with the company’s ai2 approach. He added that the program will provide students with exposure to the scientific, commercial, regulatory, and strategic factors involved in biotechnology decision-making while allowing them to contribute to the evaluation of real therapeutic opportunities.
Peters also said Lōkahi is pleased to welcome Pepperdine to its expanding network of university collaborators. The company views these partnerships as a way to broaden participation in its approach to identifying and evaluating potential therapeutic assets.
Building Practical Skills for Life Sciences Careers
For Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, the partnership provides an opportunity to connect MBA education with a specialized industry environment. Students participating in the program will be able to apply concepts related to marketing, strategy, analysis, and decision-making to challenges involving the biopharmaceutical sector.
Lynda Palmer, Program Director of Pepperdine E2B™ (Education to Business), said the program will give full-time MBA students an opportunity to apply classroom learning to real-world business challenges. She highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of the collaboration and its potential to expose students to decision-making processes associated with innovation in the life sciences industry.
According to Palmer, the partnership also supports the E2B mission of connecting education with business experience. By working on an industry-based project, students can develop analytical and leadership skills while gaining a clearer understanding of the types of challenges they may encounter in professional settings.
The collaboration illustrates a broader model of experiential learning in which universities and companies work together to address practical business questions. For students, participation can provide exposure to industry professionals and real business processes. For companies, university collaborations can create additional opportunities to examine problems from different perspectives while engaging emerging business talent.
Supporting a Broader Approach to Pipeline Development
Lōkahi’s partnership with Pepperdine comes as the company continues to develop its ai2 platform and explore approaches to therapeutic asset sourcing and evaluation. The company’s experience with the ai2 Futures Lab indicates that student participation can contribute to the identification of potential opportunities while also creating an educational environment focused on practical analysis.
The ai2 Pipeline™ initiative is intended to extend that model by creating a structured process through which students can participate in the assessment and prioritization of therapeutic assets. The program’s emphasis on real opportunities allows participants to see how scientific and business considerations come together in the development of pharmaceutical and biotechnology products.
As the biopharmaceutical industry continues to evolve, companies routinely reassess portfolios, development strategies, and capital allocation priorities. This creates a continually changing landscape of therapeutic assets and potential opportunities. Lōkahi’s ai2 approach is designed to examine that landscape through a combination of technology, data-driven analysis, and human expertise.
The Pepperdine collaboration adds an academic dimension to that strategy, allowing MBA students to engage directly with the complexities of biopharmaceutical asset evaluation. Through the upcoming academic year, participants will have the opportunity to work on actual therapeutic opportunities and develop recommendations based on structured analysis.
For Lōkahi, the partnership is expected to support its ongoing efforts to expand the reach of the ai2 Pipeline™ initiative. For Pepperdine students, it provides an opportunity to apply business education in a specialized life sciences setting and gain firsthand exposure to the strategic considerations involved in therapeutic development.
Together, the organizations are creating a program that connects graduate business education with the practical challenges of biopharmaceutical innovation, while supporting Lōkahi’s broader objective of identifying and evaluating therapeutic opportunities through its ai2 platform.
About Lōkahi Therapeutics™
Lōkahi Therapeutics is a capital-efficient biopharmaceutical platform company focused on identifying, evaluating, acquiring, and advancing overlooked therapeutic assets. Through its ai2 platform and ai2 execution model, Lōkahi integrates cross-functional expertise and disciplined decision-making to drive strategic development and long-term value creation. For more information, please visit www.lokahithera.com. For more information about the ai2 Division programs, please visit www.ai2equals.com.
About Glucotrack, Inc.
Glucotrack, Inc. (NASDAQ: GCTK) operates Lōkahi and, through its subsidiary Glucotrack Technologies, Inc., focuses on the design, development, and commercialization of novel technologies for people with diabetes, including a long-term implantable continuous blood glucose monitoring system. The Glucotrack CBGM is an Investigational Device and is limited by federal (or United States) law to investigational use. For more information, please visit www.glucotrack.com.
About Pepperdine E2B™ (Education to Business)
Pepperdine E2B™ (Education to Business) is Pepperdine Graziadio Business School’s industry collaborative learning program that connects graduate business students with companies to address real-world business challenges. Through hands-on engagements with industry partners, students apply classroom learning, develop practical business and leadership skills, and deliver recommendations to company executives