Biotech
Monday, August 21st, 2023 8:49 am EDT
AI drug discovery startup Genesis Therapeutics has raised $200 million to push its first drug candidates into clinical testing, announcing Monday a Series B funding round.
The financing, which was led by Andreessen Horowitz as well as an unnamed life sciences investor, brings Genesis’ total capital raised to over $280 million.
Genesis plans to use the money to advance its pipeline of “AI-enabled” drug programs, and to expand its research in new directions. The company specializes in using artificial intelligence to better model and predict the properties of proteins and their molecular partners.
“Blending technology and biomedicine has untapped potential, and it’s an exciting time to be at the nexus of these two powerful forces,” said Vijay Pande, a founding general partner of Andreessen Horowitz’s “Bio + Health” practice and a co-inventor of some of Genesis’ technology.
The investment is one of many flowing into AI drug discovery, despite skepticism from some corners of the biotech industry about how well the field can live up to its promised potential.
Genesis’ work has drawn the attention of major pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Roche, which partnered with the startup in 2022 and 2020, respectively. Other AI-focused companies like Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Exscientia, BenevolentAI and Insitro have drawn similar large drugmaker partnerships, too.
Still, despite the interest, AI specialists haven’t been immune to the turbulence buffeting the biotech industry more broadly. This spring, BenevolentAI cut staff and restructured its research in order to preserve cash.
Genesis’ Series B backers also included Fidelity Management, BlackRock and Nvidia’s venture capital arm, along with previous investors T. Rowe Price, Rock Springs Capital, Radical Ventures and Menlo Ventures.
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