Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine, a clinical stage end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery company, has snagged $60 million in Series D funding.
Who invested in Insilico?
The financing came from a syndicate of global investors with expertise in investing in the biopharmaceutical and life sciences sectors.
The round saw participation from new investors, including a large, diversified asset management firm on the US West Coast and BHR Partners along with current investors such as the lead investor of Series C financing round – Warburg Pincus, B Capital Group, Qiming Venture Partners, BOLD Capital Partners and Pavilion Capital.
In addition, Insilico’s founder and CEO, Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, invested in the Series D round.
AI-powered drug discovery robotics laboratory
Insilico Medicine will use the proceeds of this funding round to further bolster its financial position and fuel the growth of its advancing pipeline, including its lead program which is currently in a Phase I study and the continued development of its Pharma.AI platform.
Also, it will fund ongoing global expansion and planned strategic initiatives, including a fully automated, AI-driven robotic drug discovery laboratory, and fully robotic biological data factory to complement Insilico’s vast curated data assets.
“Despite unprecedented market conditions in the biotechnology sector, we raised this Series D round from several of the most reputable US-based and global investors,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine. “It is a testament to the strength of our end-to-end AI platform, which has been validated by many partners, and produced our first novel antifibrotic program discovered using AI and aging research, and designed using our generative AI chemistry engine.
Min Fang, Managing Director, Head of China Healthcare at Warburg Pincus said: “For Insilico, 2022 is a year of incredible growth and progress. They have demonstrated the value of combining deep scientific expertise with cutting-edge technology capabilities to significantly accelerate drug discovery. We’re delighted to continue to partner with the Insilico team and support a company that is at the forefront of this innovation.”
“With the power of cutting-edge AI platforms developed fully in house and validated by many global pharmaceutical companies and our innovative, highly parallel, fully distributed drug discovery model, we nominated seven preclinical candidates since I joined the company in 2021,” said Feng Ren, PhD, Insilico’s Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Global Research and Development.
What does Insilico do?
Founded in 2017 by Alex Zhavoronkov in Hong Kong is a clinical stage end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company. It connects biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilise deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques to discover novel targets and to design novel molecular structures with desired properties.
Insilico Medicine is delivering breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system diseases and aging-related diseases.
Insilico has expanded its collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry through co-development and software licensing deals with a number of major pharmaceutical companies. In late 2020, it launched its PandaOmics and Chemistry42 platforms. Now, nine out of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies have licensed Insilico’s AI platforms.
Also, it has completed a Phase 0 microdose study and entered a Phase I clinical trial with its first internally developed program targeting fibrosis.
