A clinical-stage pharma Hong Kong-based biotech firm Insilico Medicine has completed a US$60 million Series D financing from a group of global investors with experience in investing in the biopharma and life sciences. Insilico Medicine has initiated the development of an AI platform to deal with age-related illness and cancer.
Warburg Pincus, the lead investor of the Series C financing round with B Capital, Pavilion Capital, Bold Capital Partners, and Qiming Venture Partners, along with BHR partners and a new set of investors asset management firm on the US West coast, joined the round. Alex Zhavoronkov, the CEO and founder of Insilico, invested in the round D Series.
The capital that has been in round 4 will further strengthen the financial position and the growth of its advancing pipeline along with the lead program currently in phase 1 study. The funds will also help the current global expansion and planned schemes, including the AI-driven robotic drug discovery lab and robotic biological data factory, to match Insilico’s curated data assets.
About Insilico Medicine’s research program
Alex Zhavoronkov, the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, stated that they managed to raise Series D funds from well-known global investors even during the uncertain market conditions in the biotech sector.
He further added that this was proof of the strength of their end-to-end AI platform designed with a generative AI chemistry engine. This program, which studied first-in-human Phase 0 in healthy volunteers, entered its Phase 1 clinical trials. There were seven preclinical candidates selected across other disease indications since FY 2021.
Min Fang, the managing director of head of China healthcare at Warburg Pincus, said that this application of artificial intelligence and machine learning for drug discoveries has the power to change the way the new therapies are being developed. FY 2022 is a year of growth and progress for Insilico. They have shown the value of combining great scientific skills with state-of-art technology capabilities to speed up drug discovery.
Min Fang declared they were happy to partner with the Insilico team and supported the company in leading the innovation.
What is the Insilico’s portfolio?
Insilico has developed a growing portfolio in all areas supported by its proprietary AI platforms right from the Series C financing round. Seven programs include two synthetic lethality programs directing MAT2A and USP1 for oncology and a novel 3CL protease inhibitor for Covid-19. Insilico started its Phase 1 clinical trial after its Phase 0 microdose study with its internally developed program for Fibrosis.
Feng Ren, chief scientific officer and head of global research and development at Insilico, stated they had selected seven preclinical candidates during 2021 with the help of fully developed in-house AI and certified by several global pharma companies and their distributed drug model. He added that with 15 years of experience working in large pharma companies, he was impressed by the quality of work done by Insilico discovery programs.
Insilico Medicine is a biotech pharma company connecting chemistry, clinical trials, and biology using next-gen AI systems. It is working towards delivering innovative solutions and developing drugs for the central nervous system, immunity, cancer, and age-related illnesses.
