BenevolentAI financing round takes valuation to $2bn+
pharmafile | April 19, 2018 | News story | Medical Communications | BenevolentAI, biotech, drugs, pharma, pharmaceutical
BenevolentAI, a London based drug discovery biotech, has revealed that a $115 million financing round now sees the company valued beyond $2 billion.
The biotech itself is focused on using AI technology to speed up the drug discovery process. BenevolentAI has been around since 2013 and has already initiated 20 drug development programmes, demonstrating how quickly the technology is able to identify targets.
It revealed that the money provided would be used to scale up drug development activities, as well as broadening the disease areas it will target and improving the AI platform.
The team at BenevolentAI currently employs 165 people but Kevin Mulvany, Founder and Chairman, has indicated that he wants to double the size of the workforce.
Mulvany commented on the successful financing, “We are very pleased with the response to the fundraising. It reflects the rapidly growing global interest in the AI pharmaceutical sector and the recognition of our place as the dominant player within it.”
He continued, “We have come a very long way since we founded the business in 2013. The capabilities of our technology didn’t exist six years ago. We are pioneering this sector and have evolved into a fully integrated, AI enabled drug development company with the ability to deliver better medicines at previously unimaginable speeds – this ultimately means patients will receive the right medicines, at a lower cost, in less time.”
At present, the biotech has a few candidates in late-stage trials. It has one treatment for Parkinson’s disease in Phase 2b trials and another unnamed candidate that maybe one of a batch that BenevolentAI acquired alongside Johnson & Johnson back in 2016.
The biotech is also working on a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, after discovering one promising candidate through its AI platform.
The press release on the investment also mentions the possibility of pushing its AI platform into other science-based industries, including advanced materials, agriculture and energy storage.
Ben Hargreaves
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