Startup Trends: Investor interest highlights promise for Biotech firms that use AIML
Venture capital is flowing into several biotech firms leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning for drug and treatment discovery. Though biotech IPOs are down from 2021 levels, according to McKinsey, robust levels of VC funding have stepped in to provide funds for innovation. Much of that money has flowed to startups focused on technologies including machine learning-enabled drug discovery, while companies using AI to accelerate drug development are maturing to the clinical stage.
The VC investments could signal confidence that AI powering the tech world can also benefit the pharma world and reduce the R&D times needed in drug discovery, make these companies more efficient, and contribute to growth in the sector.
Here’s a roundup of some of the leading private companies in biotech:
Genesis Therapeutics, an AI-powered biotech company
Genesis Therapeutics specializes in AI-powered drug discovery, targeting novel proteins and untapped chemical spaces. The company combines biotech with its advanced molecular AI platform, GEMS, aiming to discover breakthrough treatments for patients with "severe and devastating conditions." According to The Wall Street Journal, Genesis targets proteins previously considered "undruggable" because scientists haven't been able to identify a compound that engages with them effectively.
In 2022, Burlingame, California-based Genesis entered a collaboration with Eli Lilly & Co. where Eli Lilly will deploy their AI drug discovery to discover therapies for up to five targets across a range of therapeutic areas.
Genesis Therapeutics’s Forge Price™ is $5.11 as of August 27, 2024, which implies a $430M valuation.
Atomwise, a Pharma Company that uses AI
San Francisco-based Atomwise is a pharmaceutical company that leverages AI to revolutionize small molecule drug discovery. The company says it is currently advancing a proprietary pipeline of drug candidates. Atomwise describes its AtomNet AI Platform as a viable alternative to high-throughput screening to consistently deliver structurally novel chemical matter.
In 2022, pharmaceutical giant Sanofi and San Francisco-based Atomwise created a research collaboration so that Sanofi could leverage its AtomNet platform for research on up to five drug targets. That agreement includes the potential for up to $1 billion in milestone-based payments to Atomwise, plus tiered royalties.
Atomwise’s Forge Price™ is $1.76 as of August 27, 2024, which implies a valuation of $278 million.
Unlearn, an AI Healthcare company
Unlearn uses AI to battle bottlenecks in the clinical development of treatments, including long trial timelines, high costs, and uncertain outcomes. The San Francisco-based company’s AI models analyze patient-level data to forecast patients’ possible health outcomes and how a disease might progress over the years. These so-called digital twins are designed to help forecast a patient's future health.
Unlearn’s TwinRCTs, clinical trials powered by patients’ digital twins, improve the ability to observe treatment effects by increasing power without adding more patients. Late-stage clinical studies can reach full enrollment sooner using TwinRCTs because they require fewer patients to achieve the same power as traditional trial designs. Many patients are unwilling to participate in clinical trials because they don’t want to be placed in a placebo group, Co-Founder Charles Fisher told The Wall Street Journal. Using a digital twin allows all patients access to an experimental treatment.
Unlearn’s Forge Price™ is $9.24 as of August 27, 2024, which implies a $368M valuation.
Seismic Therapeutic, a developer of immunology therapies
Seismic Therapeutic uses machine learning to discover and develop immunology therapies. The company integrates leading-edge machine learning into drug development for biologics for immunology, led by a team of drug developers and machine-learning innovators.
Seismic integrates machine learning with structural biology, protein engineering, and translational immunology to generate novel biologics through its IMPACT platform. The platform helps bypass the trial-and-error methods of conventional biologics development. Company founder and CEO Jo Viney previously launched biotech Pandion Therapeutics, which Merck acquired in 2021 for $1.85 billion. The company is based in Watertown, Massachusetts, in the Boston biotechnology hub.
Seismic Therapeutic’s Forge Price™ is $4.52 as of August 27, 2024, implying a valuation of $369 million.
About the Author
Jeannine DeFoe is a former Bloomberg News reporter and an experienced financial writer who focuses on a variety of topics such investing, wealth management and fintech. Read more from Jeannine.