Iambic secures $50M for AI-driven pipeline progress

Iambic Therapeutics, a company specializing in AI-powered drug discovery, has secured an additional $50 million in funding. This infusion follows less than a year after the firm successfully raised $100 million in a Series B round. The recent funding extension saw new investors Mubadala Capital and Exor Ventures leading the charge, with significant contributions from Qatar Investment Authority. Existing investors such as Illumina Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Coatue, Tao Capital Partners, and Abingworth also participated. Abingworth and Ascenta Capital had previously co-led Iambic’s Series B round last October.

The new capital aims to accelerate the development of Iambic’s leading drug candidate, IAM1363. This small molecule drug, capable of penetrating the brain, targets and inhibits both wild-type and oncogenic HER2. Currently, IAM1363 is undergoing Phase I clinical trials, being tested as a monotherapy and in combination with Herceptin (trastuzumab) for treating patients with HER2-positive cancers.

Another promising candidate from Iambic, IAM-C1, is on the cusp of entering clinical trials. IAM-C1 is a dual CDK2/4 inhibitor with the potential to be first-of-its-kind. The drug is designed to tackle treatment resistance in solid tumors like breast cancer. According to Iambic, IAM-C1 could offer a broader therapeutic index compared to existing CDK4/6 inhibitors, potentially enhancing treatment efficacy and safety.

Both IAM1363 and IAM-C1 were discovered using Iambic’s advanced AI models, which are pivotal to the company’s approach to holistic drug design. Iambic integrates these AI algorithms with an automated, high-throughput biology and chemistry experimental platform. This sophisticated setup allows the company to identify novel chemical mechanisms that target hard-to-treat biological pathways.

The AI technology employed by Iambic not only accelerates the drug discovery process but also enhances the precision of candidate selection. By processing thousands of molecular constructs, the platform supports weekly 'design-make-test' cycles. This rapid iteration capability is crucial for optimizing the therapeutic window of potential drug candidates and identifying compounds with unique and differentiated properties.

Ayman AlAbdallah, a partner at Mubadala, highlighted the efficacy of Iambic’s AI-driven models. He emphasized that these models have demonstrated remarkable accuracy and speed, facilitating the swift progression of drug candidates from discovery phases into human clinical trials.

The infusion of $50 million will support Iambic’s mission to innovate in the realm of drug discovery, leveraging AI to address complex biological targets. This technological edge could potentially revolutionize the way new therapies are developed, offering hope for more effective treatments for conditions like HER2-positive cancers and treatment-resistant solid tumors.