Iambic Therapeutics Secures $50M Series B Extension to Expand AI-Driven Oncology Pipeline

Iambic Therapeutics, a biotechnology firm based in San Diego, has successfully closed an additional $50 million to its Series B funding round. This extension was spearheaded by new investors Mubadala Capital and Exor Ventures, with participation from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Existing investors such as Abingworth, Illumina Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Coatue, and Tao Capital Partners also contributed. This latest investment brings the total for Series B to over $150 million, building on an initial $100 million raised in October that was co-led by Ascenta Capital and Abingworth, with participation from NVIDIA and other investors.

The newly acquired funds will support the advancement of Iambic’s suite of clinical and pre-clinical programs. Among these is IAM1363, a selective small molecule inhibitor targeting both wild-type and oncogenic HER2 mutants, which is currently undergoing a Phase 1/1b clinical trial. Another key program is a pioneering selective dual CDK2/4 inhibitor aimed at broadening the therapeutic window and tackling treatment resistance in solid tumors, including breast cancer.

Thomas Miller, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Iambic, expressed enthusiasm about the expanded investor base, highlighting their shared belief in the company's AI-driven discovery platform. This technology has been instrumental in developing drugs with significant clinical differentiation.

Iambic’s discovery platform leverages advanced AI models that predict protein structures and design drugs holistically. This system is integrated within an automated, high-throughput experimental setup that processes numerous molecular designs weekly, providing new biological insights that feed back into the AI models. This continuous loop enhances the accuracy and efficiency of drug discovery.

Ayman AlAbdallah, Partner at Mubadala Capital, praised Iambic as an innovator in AI-driven drug discovery. He noted the company’s proficiency in accelerating candidates from discovery phases into human trials, underscoring the potential of their technology to produce life-saving medicines.

The AI-driven platform developed by Iambic is designed to tackle complex challenges in drug discovery. By incorporating principles of physics into its AI architecture, the platform enhances data efficiency and expands the exploration of potential chemical structures. The algorithms enable the identification of novel chemical mechanisms to engage hard-to-target biological entities, define product profiles that maximize therapeutic benefits, and explore chemical spaces to discover highly differentiated development candidates. The close integration of AI-generated designs with automated experimental processes allows Iambic to complete design-make-test cycles on a weekly basis.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in San Diego, Iambic Therapeutics aims to revolutionize the field of therapeutics with its AI-driven drug discovery platform. The company brings together leading AI experts and seasoned drug hunters, all with proven success in delivering clinically validated treatments. Iambic’s platform has demonstrated the capability to produce high-quality, differentiated therapeutics quickly and across a range of target classes and mechanisms of action. The internal pipeline of clinical assets is being advanced to meet urgent patient needs.