Merck turns to biotech Cerevance to feed neuro pipeline with Alzheimer’s drugs
Merck is paying $25 million to kick off a research partnership with Cerevance, a startup that analyzes donor brain tissue to find novel targets for […]
Drug Discovery
AI tissue analysis enables rapid discovery of drug candidates
AI could address the most significant issue in drug discovery, finds Ben Hargreaves, and also offers the potential to use tissue samples to create precision […]
Harvard spinout lands $40M to bring in vivo drug discovery to cancer
Technological advances are moving drug discovery work to computers, but experimental medicines still must be tested in animals. Startup Manifold Bio is developing technology that […]
Pharma’s spend on AI in drug discovery ‘could top $3bn by 2025’
The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence to power its drug discovery and development efforts, and its spend in this area has created […]
Merck Digital Sciences Studio Launches to Support Biomedical Startups
What You Should Know: – Merck, today announced the launch of the Merck Digital Sciences Studio (MDSS) to enable the generation of innovative technologies for […]
AI specialist Charm Therapeutics launches with $50m Series A
The UK’s fertile environment for biotechs specialising in artificial intelligence has generated a new player – Charm Therapeutics – which came out of stealth mode […]
AI specialist Insilico raises $60m as more projects head to clinic
Insilico Medicine has raised $60 million in fourth-round financing that will help to fund the advancement of more drugs towards the clinical testing stage. The […]
New Flagship Pioneering startup expands the protein universe to fuel drug discovery
ProFound Therapeutics emerged from stealth with technology that it claims has discovered tens of thousands of previously undiscovered proteins—many of them promising new drug targets. […]
Buried Under Dirt or Under Debt: Can Patients Survive the Struggle of Getting Care?
Srulik Dvorsky, TailorMed CEO and Founder New patients at a cancer center in Michigan receive a 79-page handbook when their treatments commence. The handbook includes […]
Character Biosciences Raises $18M to Expand Precision Medicine Platform for Diseases of Aging
What You Should Know: – Character Biosciences (“Character”), a precision medicine platform for diseases of aging raises $18M in a new funding round led by […]
AstraZeneca extends oncology partnership with Proteros
AstraZeneca has boosted its research capacity by extending its oncology partnership with Proteros biostructures. German pharma firm Proteros specialises in structure-based drug discovery powered by […]
Novo Nordisk forges close ties with biotech VC Flagship
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has traditionally generated its pipeline mainly from internal R&D, but a new alliance with venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering signals another […]
Novel drug-discovery approach lands big backers
UK-based OMass Therapeutics is leaning on a proprietary form of native mass spectrometry to help develop small-molecule drugs for rare diseases.
How patient-on-a-chip tech could be the future of drug discovery
Testing drug compounds on a chip designed to mimic human organs sounds closer to science fiction than reality, yet the technology already exists and is […]
Google, Sanofi back UK biotech OMass’ $100m second round
OMass Therapeutics has raised an impressive $100 million in a Series B financing that is said to be the largest ever for a UK biotech […]
BMS joins Octant’s $80M financing and signs on as a drug discovery partner
Octant Bio’s synthetic biology approach to drug discovery is making progress, and the preclinical biotech has raised $80 million in Series B financing to continue […]
Ligand Pharma turns to a SPAC to take antibody biz public, raise up to $266M
OmniAb, the antibody division of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, is set to go public through a SPAC merger that will infuse the business with up to $266 […]
Celsius Therapeutics heats up with $83M and an IBD drug on path to the clinic
Single-cell analysis biotech Celsius Therapeutics has raised $83 million to advance its pipeline of drugs for autoimmune disorders and cancer. The startup’s lead autoimmune program, […]
GSK partners LifeMine on fungi-derived medicines
GlaxoSmithKline has thrown its financial and drug development weight behind LifeMine Therapeutics, a US startup that aims to find new therapeutics from fungi – widely […]
NVIDIA Launches AI Computing Platform for Medical Devices
What You Should Know: – NVIDIA today introduced Clara Holoscan MGX, a platform for the medical device industry to develop and deploy real-time AI applications […]
BMS buys into Volastra’s cancer expertise with $1.1bn alliance
Bristol-Myers Squibb is the first big pharma to strike a deal with Volastra Therapeutics, a start-up that has developed a drug discovery platform based on […]
Biotech startup Eclipse Bio emerges to shed light on RNA drug research
Scientists developing new RNA drugs need to understand how proteins bind to these molecules. Eclipsebio’s technology provides that analysis and the biotech startup now has […]
Benchling Acquires Overwatch Research to Accelerate Breakthroughs for Biopharma Companies
What You Should Know: – Today, R&D Cloud pioneer Benchling announced it has acquired Overwatch Research to accelerate in vivo research. – The acquisition will […]
Sema4, BioSymetrics Partner to Advance Data-Driven Drug Discovery
What You Should Know: – Today, Sema4, a leader in AI-driven clinical data intelligence, announced that they have partnered with BioSymetrics, to accelerate the advancement of drug […]
Eli Lilly commits $700M to its new genetic medicine institute in Boston Seaport
The Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine is a new facility in Boston that will focus on the R&D of RNA and DNA-based therapies. Eli Lilly […]
J&J partners with startup Remix, aiming to treat disease by “tuning” RNA
Several biotech companies are rising to the challenge of developing small molecules to drug RNA. Remix Therapeutics is joining the chase, but its different approach […]
Backed by $100M, Star Therapeutics sets out to find constellations of rare disease
Star Therapeutics aims to develop drugs for rare diseases, many of which currently have no FDA-approved treatments. The company forms startups focused on particular areas […]
Merck will assess Quris’ AI ‘patient-on-a-chip’ drug safety
German drugmaker Merck KGaA has reached an agreement to pilot an artificial intelligence platform developed by Quris that aims to identify potential safety problems with […]
IQVIA report: Drug R&D reaches new highs, and not just for Covid-19 products
The biopharmaceutical industry continues to be a hotbed of activity, with more than 6,000 products in active development and a growing share of that innovation […]
AI-driven Congruence Therapeutics gets $50M to stabilize misfolded proteins
Biotech startup Congruence Therapeutics is developing novel drugs that treat disease by stabilizing misfolded proteins. Key to the company’s approach is a computational platform that […]
Biotech startup Septerna lands $100M to break new ground on an old drug target
Septerna has science from a Nobel laureate and technology that finds new ways to drug GPCRs, well-validated receptors targeted by about one-third of FDA-approved medicines. […]
BenchSci raises $50m to grow AI-powered R&D platform
Canadian firm BenchSci has secured around $50 million in third-round financing that will be used to speed up the adoption of its artificial intelligence-powered platform […]
SMi’s 3rd Annual AI in Drug Discovery Conference
Exploring the Impact of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Drug Development from Discovery to Healthcare SMi Group is proud to present its 3rd Annual […]
PostEra Secures $24M, Forms $260M AI Lab Collaboration with Pfizer
What You Should Know: – PostEra, a biotechnology company specializing in machine learning for preclinical drug discovery, today announced $24M in equity financing to accelerate […]
Another big AI deal as Sanofi taps Exscientia for 15 new drugs
If the last couple of days is an indication, 2022 is already shaping up to be the year of big-ticket alliances between big pharma companies […]
Amgen pledges $1.9bn to alliance with AI specialist Generate
Fresh from a sizeable funding round that raised $370 million, artificial intelligence-based drug discovery firm Generate Biomedicines has just signed its first major partnering deal […]
Protai Nabs $8M for AI-Powered Drug Discovery Platform
What You Should Know: – Protai, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based AI-powered drug discovery startup, today announced its emergence from stealth, along with an $8 million […]
AI specialist Recursion nabs multibillion-dollar Roche partnership
Roche has formed a decade-long alliance with Recursion Pharma that will focus on using machine learning and “industrialised” drug discovery to find new neuroscience and […]
Cancer & immunology biotech Odyssey embarks with $218M, Gary Glick at helm
Odyssey Therapeutics is the latest startup formed by serial biotech entrepreneur Gary Glick. Odyssey’s destination is oncology and immunology drugs that address novel disease targets, […]
AWS and Pfizer Accelerate Drug Development and Clinical Manufacturing
What You Should Know: Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced it is working with Pfizer to create innovative, cloud-based solutions to accelerate drug development and clinical […]
GSK pumps £30m into a new Oxford University partnership
GlaxoSmithKline has formed a five-year partnership with Oxford University to set up a new institute that will apply machine learning and functional genomics to the […]
Chinese tech giant Baidu licenses mRNA algorithm to Sanofi
Sanofi has bolstered its push into mRNA-based therapies with a new licensing deal – but not as might be expected with some up-and-coming biotech company. […]
Novo Nordisk on seeking partnerships to expand its portfolio
Its vast experience in diabetes and the amount of data collected has propelled Novo Nordisk into exploring new modalities and searching for valuable collaborators, according […]
AI specialist Owkin snares $270m alliance with Sanofi in oncology
Sanofi has made another investment in artificial intelligence, taking a $180 million equity stake in Franco-US startup Owkin with another $90 million in funding for […]
Ligand Pharma antibody spinoff plan sets up competition with AbCellera, Adimab
Ligand Pharmaceuticals has turned a series of antibody discovery acquisitions into a growing business unit. Ligand now wants to spin it off as a separate […]
Alphabet’s DeepMind forms AI drug discovery unit Isomorphic Labs
Google parent Alphabet has drawn on its DeepMind artificial intelligence division to form a drug discovery unit that it calls Isomorphic Labs. The UK-registered company […]
Bionano frames $90M BioDiscovery buy as way to expand genomics analysis
Bionano Genomics is acquiring genomics software firm BioDiscovery in a $90 million cash and stock deal. While both companies provide genomics analysis solutions, Bionano said […]
AI specialist Exscientia raises $510m in upsized IPO, placing
Exscientia’s artificial intelligence-based drug discovery engine is still largely unproven, but that hasn’t stopped the company raking in funding from investors keen to back its […]
Open Source “Wikipedia” for Drug Discovery
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. Open source drug discovery was proposed in the past in connection with third-world diseases like tuberculosis and malaria, but it is […]
3rd Inflammasome Therapeutics Summit
Discover the Intricacies of Inflammasome Regulation, Leverage Inflammasome Proteins as Biomarkers & Accelerate Novel Inflammasome Therapeutics into Proof-Of-Concept Clinical Trials & Beyond Built with Ventus […]
Lundbeck taps Inscopix’ brain-mapping camera tech for CNS research
Danish drugmaker Lundbeck has teamed up with Inscopix – the developer of a technology that can film neurons in the brain in real time – […]
A biotech startup’s hunt for elusive disease targets scores $60M for drug R&D
Atavistik Bio is one of several companies discovering and developing drugs that work by allostery, binding to less obvious sites of a target protein. Acting […]
UPMC Launches Drug Discovery Company Novasenta to Develop Targeted Immunotherapy Drugs for Cancer
Mani Mohindru, Ph.D.,Chief Executive Officer, Novasent What You Should Know: – UPMC today announced the launch of Novasenta, a drug discovery and development company seeking novel and […]
BMS buys into AI-designed immune drug from Exscientia
Bristol Myers Squibb has exercised an option on an immune-modulating drug candidate developed by UK artificial intelligence specialist Exscientia, paying $20 million for the buy-in […]
AI firm XtalPi swells its coffers with another $400m financing
Artificial intelligence (AI) specialist XtalPi has chalked up a second big financing in the space of a year, raising $400 million and taking its valuation […]
Bayer bolsters R&D platform with $2bn Vividion takeover
Bayer headlined its second-quarter results this morning by unveiling a deal to buy Vividion Therapeutics, saying it will boost its ability to develop medicines against […]
Google’s DeepMind puts human proteome online for free
The most complete database of protein structures ever assembled, developed with the help of Google’s artificial intelligence unit DeepMind, has been made freely available to […]
Gates Foundation backs COVID R&D at AI firm Exscientia
Artificial intelligence-based drug discovery company Exscientia is stepping up its search for new COVID-19 medicines, thanks to an award by the Bill & Melinda Gates […]
4 Notable Life Sciences Trends from the Tech Trends Report
The Future Today Institute has released its 2021 Tech Trends Report (14th Annual Edition), a comprehensive report on strategic trends that it anticipates will affect […]
BMS embraces AI drug discovery with $1.2bn Exscientia alliance
Exscientia has signed up another big pharma partner for its artificial intelligence (AI) based drug discovery platform, this time attracting a $50 million upfront buy-in […]
Exscientia starts trials of AI-designed Alzheimer’s drug
Exscientia has advanced a drug candidate for Alzheimer’s disease into human testing, the third clinical-stage project for the UK specialist in artificial intelligence (AI) based […]
Roivant’s move to go public reveals just how much its drug strategy has changed
Founded by former hedge fund manager Vivek Ramawamy, Roivant Sciences set out to redefine drug development by acquiring overlooked drugs and advancing their development. The […]
InveniAI Collaborates with Shionogi on AI-Based Drug Discovery
Shots: InveniAI is eligible to receive up to $200M/ program as up front, development, and commercial milestones along with royalties The collaboration integrates InveniAI’s AI […]
Here’s a look at natural product drug discovery 2.0
Plant-based drug discovery may be tens of thousands of years old, but in 2021, it feels exciting, rich, and full of potential. Companies are rapidly […]
Relay Therapeutics pays $85M for startup with a new AI tech for drug discovery
Relay Therapeutics has its own technology that applies artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to drug discovery. Its $85 million acquisition of ZebiAI gives it […]
Q1 2021 Health IT/Digital Health PC/VE, M&A, IPOs/ SPACs Activity
The first quarter of 2021 has been one of investor optimism as the vaccine rollout continues ahead of expectations and economic activity begins to accelerate in […]
Exscientia starts trials of first AI-derived cancer immunotherapy
Exscientia was the first company to start human trials of a new drug designed using artificial intelligence (AI) last year, and now says it has […]
AI drug discovery player 1910 Genetics debuts with $26m war chest
There’s a new kid on the block among companies using artificial intelligence in drug discovery, after 1910 Genetics launched today with $26 million in financing. […]
Takeda Collaborates with Evotec on RNA Targeting Drug Development
Shots: Evotec to receive research funding and will be eligible for $160M/program as discovery, pre/ clinical, a commercial milestone along with royalties on sales of […]
Welsh startup Antiverse raises $2m for antibody discovery toolkit
New biotech Antiverse has raised seed funding of £1.4 million ($2 million) to develop its artificial intelligence-based platform for discovering therapeutic antibodies. The Cardiff, Wales […]
AI drug discovery firm Valence joins Parkinson’s disease push
Canada’s Valence Discovery has joined a University of Montreal-led project to try to find new drugs to treat the involuntary movement complications that can accompany […]
Exscientia Secures $100M To Expand AI Drug Discovery Platform
What You Should Know: – Exscientia, leading AI drug discovery company, today announced that it completed its $100 million Series C financing round, with a […]
Roivant extends AI drug discovery reach with $450M Silicon Therapeutics buyout
Roivant Sciences is expanding its drug discovery and design capabilities via a stock deal to acquire Silicon Therapeutics. The Boston startup uses physics-based modeling to […]
UCB Collaborates with Microsoft to Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development
Shots: The collaboration will merge Microsoft’s computational services, cloud and AI with UCB’s drug discovery and development capabilities The companies intend to discover and develop […]
Microsoft, UCB Launch Collaboration to Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development
What You Should Know: – Global biopharma company UCB and Microsoft announced today a new, multi-year strategic collaboration to advance UCB’s digital transformation, change the way care […]
Alzheimer’s Research UK starts AI-based drug hunt with Exscientia
Medical charity Alzheimer’s Research UK has teamed up with artificial intelligence specialist Exscientia to find new drug treatments for the devastating neurodegenerative disease. The alliance […]
Evotec Collaborates with Related Sciences for Drug Discovery and Development
Shots: Evotec to receive milestones, royalties, and a founding equity stake in all Related Sciences assets developed under the collaboration Evotec and Related Sciences will […]
Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery – Could help Reduce Significant Capital and Time Required
Drug discovery is a complex process which involves significant utilization of time and resources. As per several sources, on an average, the entire drug development […]
Advancing Healthcare Delivery via Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence have demonstrated intelligent behavior through their ability to learn, communicate with its users and solve complex problems using highly sophisticated algorithms. AI-driven technologies […]
Roche Collaborate with Cambridge Quantum Computing to Develop Quantum Algorithm for Drug Discovery and Development
Shots: CQC collaborates with Roche to design and implement noisy-intermediate-scale-quantum (NISQ) algorithms for early-stage drug discovery and development The collaboration will employ CQC’s quantum chemistry […]
Elsevier to Work with Heel for Mechanism-based Drug Action Discovery
Elsevier, the data analytics business specialized in science and health, and Heel, a pharmaceutical company specialized in developing and manufacturing medicines made from natural ingredients, […]
30 Executives Share Top Healthcare Predictions & Trends to Watch in 2021
As we close out the year, we asked several healthcare executives to share their predictions and trends for 2021. Kimberly Powell, Vice President & General […]
AI drug discovery biotech AbCellera eyes record IPO
AbCellera Biologics has been in the spotlight since coming up with Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody drug bamlanivimab, and looks set to capitalise on that exposure […]
How the rare disease community has developed fertile ground for progress
Amanda Barrell explores how a perfect storm of changing economics, advances in technology, and the increasing volume of the patient voice is stoking change in […]
BioNTech, InstaDeep plan joint lab for AI research
BioNTech may be deeply ensconced in the latter stages of its bid to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to market, but it’s still pushing forward on […]
Johnson & Johnson Innovation Launches 3 Collaborations to Advance Healthcare in China
Front row (left to right): Jian Chen, Vice President, Xian Janssen Pharmaceuticals; Dan Wang, Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Asia Pacific; Sharona Tao, Leader, Communications […]
Mission Bio Launches Single-Cell Multi-Omics System for Precision Cancer Therapies
What You Should Know: – Mission Bio launches industry’s first and only single-cell multi-omics platform, is announcing the launch of its most comprehensive instrument to-date, […]
BMS joins forces with insitro to develop neurodegenerative treatments
insitro has landed another big biopharma partnership, signing a five-year collaboration with Bristol Myers Sqibb to develop therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal […]
JPC Taps Proscia to Modernize World’s Largest Human Tissue Repository
What You Should Know: – The U.S. government’s Joint Pathology Center, which houses the world’s largest human tissue repository, today announced that Proscia, a leading […]
REAL-WORLD EVIDENCE: THE GAME CHANGER IN DRUG DEVELOPMENT
While the definition of real world evidence is still evolving, most proponents associate it with data that is derived from medical practice among heterogeneous sets […]
Roche Collaborates with Genesis Therapeutics for AI-Driven Drug Discovery
Shots: Genesis to receive an up front and is eligible to receive pre/ clinical and regulatory milestones along with royalties on sales of approved drugs […]
AI drug-discovery firm lands first partnership
The deal with Roche subsidiary Genentech is likely not the last for Genesis Therapeutics, which is based on AI research undertaken at Stanford. Such partnerships […]
How DNA-encoded Libraries Boost Drug Discovery
DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) have been gaining a lot of traction in hit finding and drug discovery in recent years. Regarded by some as a truly […]
4 Areas Driving AI Adoption in Hospital Operations and Patient Safety
Renee Yao, Global Healthcare AI Startups Lead at NVIDIA COVID-19 has put a tremendous burden on hospitals, and the clinicians, nurses, and medical staff who […]
AI-centered drug discovery startup XtalPi raises nearly $319M in Series C round
The six-year-old Google-backed company was founded by three MIT physicists and hopes to use its technology to make drug discovery faster and less cumbersome by […]
Scripps Research, Repurpose.AI Partner to Develop COVID-19 Therapeutics
What You Should Know: – Repurpose.AI, has partnered with Scripps Research to discover drug candidates that may be repurposed to treat COVID-19. – The partnership […]
Increasing Rate of Drug Failure has Prompted the Drug Developers to Rely on CROs offering In Vitro ADME Testing Services for their Outsourcing Requirements
It is important to note that the process of drug discovery is extremely demanding, both in terms of capital and time. In fact, the overall […]
Rising Popularity of Drug Targeting Synthetically Lethal Targets Fuels the Battle of PARP Inhibitors for Treatment of Advanced Cancer Indications
Cancer is considered to be the second leading cause of mortality, after cardiovascular diseases, accounting for every sixth reported death in the world. The International […]
Targeted Protein Degradation – Defining a New Frontier in the Field of Medicine
The concept of targeted protein degradation presents revolutionary drug development opportunities and is anticipated to bring about a paradigm shift in modern healthcare. While conventional […]
In Silico / Computer-Aided Drug Discovery Service Providers for Large Molecules
Over time, the complexities associated with drug discovery have increased, especially in case of large molecule drugs, which are inherently more complex than conventional small […]
