AI specialists focused on discovering new drug therapies raise $200M
Genesis Therapeutics, a California-based biotechnology company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to discover new drug treatments, has successfully concluded a Series B funding round worth $200 million. The influx of funds is expected to be used to advance the company's AI-enabled drug pipeline into clinical development and further expand its AI platform.
The funding round, led by venture capitalist and life science investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, witnessed significant participation from esteemed new investors, including BlackRock, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and NVentures, the venture capital arm of NVIDIA.
Previous supporters of the company such as Rock Springs Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates, Radical Ventures, and Menlo Ventures also contributed.
With the newly acquired capital, Genesis says it plans to advance its proprietary AI-enabled drug programs toward clinical trials. The company's AI platform, known as the Genesis Exploration of Molecular Space (GEMS), employs predictive AI techniques to design novel drugs and forecast their potential properties.
“AI presents a potent opportunity to revolutionize the drug discovery process, which frequently struggles to produce viable drug candidates against targets that are biologically well-validated but considered undruggable due to highly challenging chemistry,” Evan Feinberg, PhD, CEO of Genesis Therapeutics, said in a statement. “This funding comes as Genesis is approaching an inflection point with the first of our AI-enabled drug candidates entering the clinic. The addition of our new lead investor, and other meaningful additions to our biotech and AI-oriented syndicate, will support Genesis in developing breakthrough therapies for patients with severe unmet medical needs, and their families, capitalizing on the broad applicability and potential of the GEMS AI platform.”
After this latest round of investments, Genesis has now raised a total of $280 million. The company has also established working relationships with biotech company Genentech and drug manufacturer Eli Lilly.
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