Google AI Drug Discovery Startup Isomorphic Labs Eyes $50B Valuation
Google-backed AI drug discovery startup Isomorphic Labs is reportedly in early talks to raise funds at a $40 billion to $50 billion valuation, led by Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis.
Isomorphic Labs, the AI drug discovery startup spun out of Google, is in early talks to raise funds at a valuation between $40 billion and $50 billion, according to a Bloomberg report. Founded about five years ago as a subsidiary of Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs aims to leverage the AlphaFold protein structure prediction technology—for which its DeepMind developers received a Nobel Prize—for drug discovery.
The company is led by Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis, who stepped down as CEO of DeepMind in August to serve as its chairman. About five months ago, Isomorphic Labs completed a $2.1 billion Series B funding round. According to Hassabis, Google provided a "large portion" of the amount. The company has partnerships with pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novartis, focusing on developing treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
In recent months, several AI companies have entered the drug discovery and development sector or expanded their operations in it. One of the most publicized moves was made by Anthropic, which announced in July that it had begun working on an internal venture to discover new drugs using its advanced AI models. Various companies hope that modern AI models will significantly shorten the timeline for developing new drugs, which currently takes years. To date, only a few AI-developed drugs have reached clinical trials, and none have yet been approved for use.
