InSilico Medicine, Inc.

Check out five upcoming AI players attracting investor attention for their potential to speed up drug discovery. Drug discovery is a laborious undertaking that traditionally involves lots of trial-and-error drug screening to arrive at a potential candidate for further development. For this reason, the process can take several years and many millions of dollars to complete. In the last decade, increasing advancements in computing and artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools have shown the potential to speed up drug discovery. For example, AI algorithms can be designed to pore over enormous omics and clinical datasets for potential drug targets more accurately and quickly than before. They can also simulate the molecular properties of drug candidates to reduce the need for physical testing. Big pharma and biotech companies are busy collaborating with major AI providers such as Exscientia and InSilico Medicine to turbocharge their pipelines. This is one of the drivers for rapid growth in the sector, with the global market expected to soar ​ from $1.1 billion in 2022 to $9.1 billion by 2030. Many venture capitalists and strategic investors are piling on promising startups that offer AI to boost drug discovery efforts. Even companies that are historically more in the tech sphere such as Nvidia Corp and Alphabet are increasingly drawn to the appeal of applying AI in drug development. We explore five upcoming startups that have raised big venture capital rounds in recent years to bankroll the development of their AI-driven drug discovery tools. googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('text-ad1'); }); BenchSci ​ Headquarters: ​ Toronto, Canada Founded: ​ 2016 BenchSci was founded to serve pharmaceutical and biotech R&D specialists. The company launched its first application in 2017 called AI-Assisted Antibody Selection, which reads text and images from a vast database of 19 million scientific publications. The technology uses machine learning models to understand the experiments and data like a PhD scientist could and help researchers to cut the failure rate in their experiments. Later on, BenchSci applied its technology to improving our knowledge of disease biology, which would later become its ASCEND platform. The technology has helped customers to find novel drug targets and disease indications in 22% of their key projects and reduced unnecessary experimentation by 40%, according to the company. BenchSci raised a Series D funding round worth US $70 million in May 2023 to finance the development of ASCEND. The round, led by Generation Investment Management joined by existing investors including iNovia Capital and TCV, takes the company’s total investments to US $170 million. Late last year, Alphabet-owned Google, one of BenchSci’s backers, launched the latest of its AI-based models specialized to healthcare and BenchSci was one of the first firms to test the models in its operations. Causaly ​ Headquarters: ​ London, UK, and San Francisco, California, US Founded: ​2018 Causaly was set up by a team of computer scientists and is developing a platform that harnesses AI models to read biomedical literature with natural language understanding. This lets the technology produce answers for users via generative AI that could have taken weeks to produce with traditional research. For example, the company’s software can be used to discover biomarkers that can be used to track the safety and the resistance of cancers to drugs such as the drug rituximab. Causaly bagged $60 million in a Series B round in July 2023 to expand the commercialization of its technology. The round took Causaly’s total winnings to $93 million and was led by ICONIQ Growth with participation from investors including Index Ventures, and current and former executives from Johnson & Johnson and Datadog. The round came as the company had just tripled its revenue with 12 of the top 20 pharma companies on its customer list. Evozyne ​ Headquarters: ​ Chicago, Illinois, US Founded: ​ 2020 There is an overwhelming range of possible protein designs in existence, which can make it difficult to design proteins optimal for use in healthcare and other industries. In response to this challenge, Evozyne was set up by the company builder Paragon Biosciences to engineer proteins using AI. Evozyne’s technology deploys computational chemistry and an evolutionary process to produce the most optimal proteins. For example, the firm is developing protein drugs to take on autoimmune diseases by selectively breaking down antibodies responsible for the condition. It is also working on customized versions of the gene editing tool CRISPR to access more of the genome than traditional versions of the tool. The company’s $81 million Series B round, closed in September 2023, is being used to bankroll the development of its technology. The round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and OrbiMed, with contributions from NVentures, Nvidia’s venture capital arm. The company also worked with Nvidia to validate a new AI model and with Takeda to develop engineered protein treatments. “Our next three years will be tightly focused on maximizing our generative AI platform for drug development and carbon capture, while we develop a portfolio of gene editors and enzymes that modulate immune response,” said Evozyne CEO Mike Gamson in a public statement ​. Genesis Therapeutics ​ Headquarters: ​ Burlingame, California, US Founded: ​ 2019 Genesis makes the list with a whopping $200 million Series B round raised in August 2023, taking its total investments to $280 million. The round was aimed to expand the company’s pipeline of AI-derived small molecule candidates for previously undrugged targets. The firm is also investing in its drug development platform and beginning the clinical development of some candidates. Genesis was founded based on research in Stanford University and its platform, dubbed Genesis Exploration of Molecular Space (GEMS), deploys chemistry, quantum physics and machine learning to generate billions of potential drug candidates and predict potency and selectivity. The company also uses a type of AI method to model how protein structures impact their binding to a drug molecule. Genesis is already using its AI expertise to work with the big pharma company Eli Lilly in a $670 million collaboration to develop therapies for up to five targets in undisclosed therapy areas. Genesis’ latest funding round was led by an undisclosed US life sciences investor in addition to returning investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health. Other investors that pitched in include Fidelity Management & Research Company, BlackRock, and NVentures. Xaira ​ Headquarters: ​ San Francisco, California, US Founded: ​ 2023 Xaira stormed onto the pharmaceutical scene in April this year with more than $1 billion in investments led by founding investors ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Capital, along with a queue of other investment firms. The firm is led by experts from organizations including Genentech, Meta and UW Medicine Institute, and blends functional genomics expertise from Illumina and proteomics from Interline Therapeutics. Xaira is building a strategy that combines machine learning, drug development and data generation for powering new models. It bases its technology on RFdiffusion and RFantibody, models for protein and antibody design that can be used to develop treatments across different modalities. The company also plans to feed data from lab and clinical experiments into the models, creating a feedback loop where drug development improves its AI models. “We have reached the point where AI finally allows us to see biology in new ways, and translate those discoveries to better treatments for disease,” said Robert Nelsen, managing director and co-founder of ARCH Venture Partners, in a public statement ​. “This creates an enormous opportunity for us to rethink drug discovery entirely. For this reason, Xaira is the largest initial funding commitment in ARCH history.”

New York, Feb. 08, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Insilico Medicine ("Insilico"), a clinical-stage end-to-end generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to INS018_055 for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). INS018_055 is a potentially first-in-class small molecule inhibitor discovered by Insilico's generative AI platform, Pharma.AI, for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic lung disease that causes progressive and irreversible decline in lung function and represents a significant unmet medical need worldwide. As the disease progresses, damage to the patient’s lungs increases and respiratory function is compromised, often with severe consequences. “We are pleased to announce that Insilico has achieved numerous drug discovery milestones and provided new clinical hope using generative AI,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine. “We are progressing the global clinical development of the program at top speed to allow patients with fibrotic diseases to benefit from this novel therapeutic as soon as possible.” In February 2021, Insilico Medicine nominated INS018_055 as the preclinical candidate (PCC) for IPF. This is the first wholly owned program of the Company in which AI was used both to identify a novel target and to generate novel small molecules. The enrollment for the INS018_055 Phase I clinical trial was initiated in New Zealand in February 2022 and in China in May 2022. Both of the clinical trials were completed in 2022. Top-line data from the Phase I clinical trial indicated that the drug candidate has a favorable safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetic profile. Insilico plans to initiate a global multicenter Phase II clinical trial in early 2023. “Our commitment to treating patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is reflected in the FDA’s decision to grant orphan drug designation to INS018_055,” said Sujata Rao M.D., Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Development at Insilico Medicine. “We are working to advance novel treatment for IPF as we continue clinical investigation into this devastating disease.” The FDA's Orphan Drug Designation program supports the development and evaluation of drugs that address rare diseases which affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. Receiving orphan drug designation from the FDA facilitates the subsequent development and commercialization of INS018_055 that comes with the designation, including eligibility for federal grants, tax credits for qualified clinical trials, prescription drug user fee exemptions, and a seven-year marketing exclusivity period upon FDA approval. “INS018_055 is a potential first-in-class drug candidate discovered by Insilico's generative AI platform, Pharma.AI, ” said Feng Ren, Ph.D., Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Insilico Medicine. “The FDA’s orphan drug designation for the IPF indication is an important milestone in the development of INS018_055. Insilico scientists are now further advancing clinical validation and accelerating the project to meet clinical needs and benefit patients worldwide.” Drug discovery is a lengthy and risky process. Throughout the multi-year AI-powered drug discovery process, Insilico Medicine has recorded and compiled a large amount of documentary footage and multimedia content produced by the Company and its partners worldwide. This footage is now available to documentary filmmaking teams, individual film makers, and students via the Documentary Hackathon (“Docuthon”). Prospective participants are invited to enroll in the Docuthon by submitting their applications via the Docuthon page. About Insilico Medicine Insilico Medicine, a clinical stage end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, is connecting biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. Website: Brita Belli Insilico Medicine 475-225-0843 brita@insilico.com

New York, Jan. 10, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”), a clinical stage artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug R&D company, today announces positive topline results of safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK) from the Phase 1 clinical trial of INS018_055, a potential first-in-class drug discovered by Insilico's end-to-end AI platform for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). "Topline data from our Phase 1 study of INS018_055 demonstrate the ability of our Pharma.AI platform to discover novel targets and design novel molecules with a high level of translatability to human biology,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine. “This lead program is paving the way for a new era of drug discovery and development that utilizes next generation AI to identify novel targets and generate novel drugs to treat diseases requiring regular peroral drug administration for the entire lifetime with very high safety requirements.” Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a type of chronic scarring lung disease characterized by a progressive and irreversible decline in lung function affecting around 5 million people globally. IPF carries a poor prognosis with a median survival of 3 to 4 years and represents a significant unmet medical need. INS018_055 is the first anti-fibrotic small molecule inhibitor generated by Insilico's Pharma.AI drug discovery platform with a novel target discovered and novel structure designed by AI. The INS018_055 Phase 1 study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 1 study featured a single ascending dose (SAD) and multiple ascending dose (MAD) to evaluate the safety, tolerability, PK, food effects, and drug-drug interaction (DDI) potential of INS018_055 in 78 healthy volunteers in New Zealand (NZ). Enrollment in Insilico Medicine’s Phase 1 clinical trial was initiated in Feb. 2022 and the last subject follow-up visit was completed in Nov. 2022. The safety and PK data collection has been completed for both SAD and MAD cohorts. The observed human PK of INS018_055 in healthy volunteers was in line with the Company’s preclinical modeling with no significant accumulation after 7 days and exhibited a favorable PK profile. INS018_055 was generally safe and well tolerated by healthy volunteers in the study. There were no deaths or SAEs reported during the study. One subject receiving INS018_055 in the MAD 30 mg once daily cohort discontinued the study treatment due to a moderate TEAE of influenza-like illness, which was considered unrelated to the study treatment. All treatment-related AEs were of mild severity and resolved by the end of the study. Based on these results, Insilico expects to initiate a Phase 2a study of INS018_055 in IPF patients in early 2023. The company expects to share additional data from this Phase 1 study in future updates. “There remains a high unmet medical need for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and INS018_055 targets major activated signaling cascades that significantly contribute to the pathogenesis of lung fibrosis with both anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory activity,” said Sujata Rao, PhD, SVP, Head of Global Clinical Development at Insilico Medicine. “Results from this study are promising for safety and tolerability of INS018_055 and will be incorporated into a regulatory submission to the FDA. Pending approval by the Agency, we expect initiation of the Phase 2a study in early 2023.” “INS018_055 is the first AI-designed novel molecule for an AI-discovered novel target entered into a clinical trial,” said Feng Ren, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and co-CEO of Insilico Medicine.“The topline data demonstrate good PK and tolerability of the drug in healthy volunteers in both SAD and MAD, which is quite encouraging. The positive Phase I data enable the further evaluation of the drug efficacy in IPF patients in the Phase 2 trial. In addition, the continued progression of INS018_055 demonstrates again the power of our AI platform in drug discovery and development.” For more information about Insilico's clinical trial please visit ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier NCT05154240). About Insilico Medicine Insilico Medicine, a clinical stage end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, is connecting biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. Website: Contact: media@insilico.com Brita Belli Insilico Medicine 475-225-0843 brita@insilico.com