T Rowe Price Foundation, Inc.

The former Fierce Medtech Fierce 15 winner’s latest financing was led by Redmile Group. \n The neuromodulation developer Saluda Medical announced that it raised $100 million to help bolster the sales of its closed-loop implant aimed at treating chronic pain.The company’s Evoke spinal cord stimulator, approved by the FDA in early 2022, is designed to measure nerve activation in real time and automatically make changes when needed to help optimize pain relief while delivering as many as 100 electric pulses per second.The former Fierce Medtech Fierce 15 winner’s latest financing was led by Redmile Group, and joined by Wellington Management, TPG Life Sciences Innovation, Fidelity Management & Research, Action Potential Venture Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Piper Heartland Healthcare Capital. Saluda estimates that chronic pain impacts about 67 million people in the U.S., and about 20% of the world’s population.The Minneapolis-based company last year delivered clinical data exploring neurophysiological biomarkers as well as patient-reported outcomes, showing that 98% of patients who responded well to an initial trial procedure went on to record levels of pain relief by the end of the study.Another abstract, presented in July 2024 at the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience annual conference in Miami, illustrated the relationship between objective dose-response biomarkers with personalized, closed-loop stimulation and the patient’s pain relief.A previous study, published in The Lancet Neurology in 2020, showed the Evoke device could reduce or eliminate the use of opioid painkillers after one year among 55% of patients, compared to 40% who received traditional spinal cord stimulation.

Artificial intelligence technology company SandboxAQ has raised $300 million to accelerate development of technologies with applications in a range of industries, including the life sciences. Palo Alto, California-based SandboxAQ, a spinout of Alphabet, specified that the new funding announced Wednesday will support development of large quantitative models (LQMs), which are models that process and analyze large datasets. That’s in contrast to large language models (LLMs) that analyze text. SandboxAZ says its LQMs are used by companies in the life sciences, energy, financial services, government, telecommunications, and more. In drug research, LQMs can be used to run simulations of physical and chemical interactions to identify new biomarkers and optimize clinical development of experimental medicines. The company’s life science industry customers include Sanofi and Flagship Pioneering. Sponsored Post The Funding Model for Cancer Innovation is Broken — We Can Fix It Closing cancer health equity gaps require medical breakthroughs made possible by new funding approaches. By Eve McDavid - CEO of Mission-Driven Tech “Large quantitative models are the next wave of AI as they provide a powerful ability to solve science and business problems for large industries including aerospace, biopharma, chemicals, defense, energy, finance, and more,” SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary said in a prepared statement. “The capital raise we are announcing today gives us additional resources to drive deep impact at scale. LLMs and LQMs are complementary platforms that are both needed in the world of B2B applications.” SandboxAQ spun out of Alphabet in 2022. The following year, the company reportedly raised $500 million for cybersecurity and other quantum computing work. SandboxAQ has put some of that money to work through acquisitions that brought new technologies. In 2022, SandboxAQ acquired cybersecurity and encryption analysis software firm Cryptosense. At the beginning of this year, it bought computational chemistry company Good Chemistry. Financial terms for both deals were not disclosed. SandboxAQ said the latest round of funding valued the company at $5.3 billion on a pre-money basis, before it received any new investment. Its disclosed investors include Fred Alger Management, T. Rowe Price Associates, Mumtalakat, Parkway Venture Capital, Breyer Capital, Rizvi Traverse, S32, US Innovative Technology Fund, Ava Investments, Eric Schmidt, Marc Benioff, David Siegel, Yann LeCun, and IQT. 3D Motion graphic of AI or artificial intelligence Innovation Technology concept, AI Font 3D in digital cyber space, AI Chatbot and Generative AI technology, Futuristic abstract background for Business Science and technology. presented by Health IT Transforming Patient Care: The Role of AI-Powered Assistants The progress in artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping patient care, across various dimensions, from facilitating faster discharge to curating treatment plans and suggesting lifestyle changes. By IT Medical Illustration: MR.Cole_Photographer, Getty Images

SandboxAQ\'s new funds will go toward the \"next wave of AI,\" CEO Jack Hidary said in a release.\n Alphabet spinoff SandboxAQ has raised more than $300 million to go toward developing AI applications across multiple areas including drug discovery, chemistry and medical devices.More specifically, the new fund will home in on large quantitative models, which are designed to analyze and generate measurable data.Fred Alger Management, T. Rowe Price Associates, Mumtalakat, Parkway Venture Capital, Breyer Capital, Rizvi Traverse, S32, US Innovative Technology Fund, Ava Investments, Eric Schmidt, Marc Benioff, David Siegel, Yann LeCun, IQT and other unnamed investors contributed to the fund, according to a Dec. 18 release. \"Large Quantitative Models are the next wave of AI as they provide a powerful ability to solve science and business problems for large industries including aerospace, biopharma, chemicals, defense, energy, finance and more,\" SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary said in the release.In 2022, Google’s parent company Alphabet spun off its quantum technology unit to form SandboxAQ. The startup, which grew out of work Alphabet began in 2016, raised $500 million in early 2023. Later that year, the spinoff signed up AstraZeneca and Sanofi as users of its drug discovery and development tools. The Big Pharmas are part of SandboxAQ’s AQBioSim division, which is designed to accelerate R&D efforts.