AION Labs

Tech-enabled drug discovery company Insilico Medicine secured $110 million in an oversubscribed Series E funding round. A large equity fund of Value Partners Group, an asset management firm in Asia, and new and existing investors participated in the round. WHAT IT DOES Massachusetts-based Insilico's proprietary generative AI platform, Pharma.AI, utilizes biology, clinical medicine, scientific research and generative chemistry for drug discovery. The company says Pharna.AI includes LLMs, Nach01, a multimodal foundation model for nature and chemical languages, and Dora, a multi-agent generative research assistant. It also touts that it deployed Insilico, the first bipedal humanoid AI Scientist that works to optimize and automate research workflows within its robotic lab, Life Star1, a fully robotic lab connected to Pharma.AI. The company will use the funds to advance its drug pipeline, AI platform, and biopharmaceutical research and development. It will also work to expand its collaborations across the industry and drive the application of its AI platform in diverse scenarios across the life sciences sector. "We are excited to partner with Insilico Medicine in its mission to transform drug discovery with AI and automation. With a proven track record and a leadership position in AI-driven drug development, Insilico is at the forefront of transforming the industry," Dr. Chuen Yan Leung, partner (healthcare investments) at Value Partners Group, said in a statement. "We believe that Insilico's advancements will not only accelerate the development of life-saving therapies but also redefine the future of biopharmaceutical R&D. This partnership also marks a significant milestone for Value Partners' private equity strategy and our vision of investing in disruptive innovations that have the potential to reshape industries." MARKET SNAPSHOT Earlier this year, Insilico announced a second licensing agreement with Italian pharmaceutical company Menarini Group that will allow a subsidiary of Menarini to use a novel AI-discovered preclinical asset focused on oncology developed using Insilico's Chemistry42 AI platform. The agreement grants Stemline Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Menarini, global rights to develop and commercialize a selective small molecule inhibitor with broad antitumor activity. Under the terms of the agreement, Insilico would receive a $20 million upfront payment, with the deal's total potential value exceeding $550 million through development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties. In 2022, Insilico secured $60 million in Series D funding. A year before, it scored $225 million in a Series C funding round. Other companies in the AI drug discovery space include Manas AI, which launched earlier this year with $24.6 million in seed funding in a round co-led by General Catalyst and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman. Hoffman and Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, an oncologist, researcher and author, founded Manas AI. Israel-based AION Labs is another company in the space. AION is a partnership between major pharma companies, including AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer, Israel Biotech Fund and Teva Pharmaceuticals, as well as tech company Amazon Web Services and German independent research institute Bio Med X. AION was founded in 2021 and was built under a government tender with the support of the Israeli government via the Israel Innovation Authority. The venture studio has eight companies in its portfolio, all in the AI life sciences space.

Drug discovery startup Insilico Medicine and Italian pharmaceutical company Menarini Group announced their second licensing agreement, targeting unmet needs in oncology with a novel AI-discovered preclinical asset. The agreement grants Stemline Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Menarini, global rights to develop and commercialize a selective small molecule inhibitor with broad anti-tumor activity. Developed using Insilico's Chemistry42 AI platform, the asset successfully completed preclinical trials. Under the terms, Insilico will receive a $20 million upfront payment, with the deal's total potential value exceeding $550 million through development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties. The partnership follows Menarini's 2024 acquisition of MEN2312, another AI-discovered asset targeting KAT6 inhibitors for breast cancer. MEN2312 rapidly progressed into clinical trials. "We are thrilled to expand our collaboration with Insilico, a leader in generative AI," Elcin Barker Ergun, CEO of the Menarini Group, said in a statement. "This partnership allows us to address critical gaps in oncology treatment and reach more patients globally with innovative therapies." THE LARGER TREND This partnership highlights the potential of AI to revolutionize pharmaceutical innovation, enabling faster development of targeted therapies and the growing role of generative AI (genAI) in accelerating drug discovery and development. The technology is being leveraged for precision medicine, addressing critical unmet needs in cancer treatment and accelerating timelines from discovery to clinical application. Major technology companies, including Google DeepMind and its AlphaProteo project are part of the evolution, as well as numerous startups across the globe, including Israeli startup CytoReason, which recently received $80 million in a funding round. In October, AION Labs launched ProPhet, a startup using AI to accelerate drug discovery by identifying high-affinity small molecules for challenging protein targets, aiming to refine early-stage processes and reduce time and costs. IBM and German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim have also partnered to leverage IBM's advanced large-scale neural network architectures to accelerate the discovery of therapeutic antibodies for treating cancer, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases and other medical conditions. In June 2024, Australian researchers developed PSICHIC, an AI tool that decodes protein-molecule interactions from sequence data without costly 3D rendering. The tool screens drug candidates, profiles selectivity, and distinguishes functional effects, streamlining and lowering the cost of drug discovery. A South Korea-based collection of research institutes is also plugging in the power of AI to accelerate cancer drug discovery in a four-phase project, the latest in a series of government-backed initiatives leveraging machine learning and big data.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Atropos Health, a company translating real-world clinical data into real-world evidence for decision-making, announced it is partnering with Merck to generate RWE, replicate studies, and produce rapid insights and analytics on real-world data. Via the partnership, Atropos Health will enable rapid cohort creation, advanced analytics and publication-grade studies in less than 48 hours. Merck’s data science and RWE teams will employ Atropos Health services, including GENEVA OS (Generative Evidence Acceleration Operating System), Green Button, Atropos Evidence Network and Alexandria, Forge and ChatRWD. Additionally, Merck teams will work closely with Atropos Health’s data scientists, technologists and researchers to produce rapid analytics and evidence generation. "Global life sciences organizations are relying on RWE for decision-making when it comes to the innovation of life-saving treatments," Brigham Hyde, CEO and cofounder of Atropos Health, told MobiHealthNews. "With the Atropos Health platform, Merck can now leverage automation and rapid evidence generation into their development of new treatments." THE LARGER TREND In 2024, Atropos secured $33 million in Series B funding. Valtruis led the investment round, which included new investors McKesson Ventures, Merck GHI Fund and Cencora Ventures. Emerson Collective, Breyer Capital and Presidio Ventures also participated in the round. That same year, Atropos announced that Arcadia joined its health portfolio, giving Arcadia's provider customers and life sciences users access to Atropos' offerings. Through the partnership, Arcadia joined Atropos' Evidence Network, allowing its users access to Atropos' portfolio of applications to support clinical decision-making in value-based care. In 2022, life science firm Merck Korea and Standigm, a South Korea-based AI drug discovery company signed a memorandum of understanding for AI-driven drug-discovery research. The partnership involved Standigm's adoption of Merck's AI software SYNTHIA for compound synthesis. Merck also joined forces that year with Israel-based AION Labs on the creation of a new AI-focused platform designed to help pharma research.