AI Drug Discovery

Isomorphic Labs, the AI-powered drug discovery startup spun out of Alphabet's Google DeepMind, is in early talks to raise new funds at a valuation of at least $40B, according to Bloomberg. The round could value Isomorphic as highly as $50B, one of the sources said, though the financing has not closed and details could change. The talks come only five months after Isomorphic Labs raised $2.1B in its Series B funding effort. Separately, the US government and tech giants Meta Platforms and Google parent Alphabet are joining nonprofit Biohub to build open datasets to train AI models for biological research, bringing total investment in the effort to $1.8B, Biohub said on Wednesday. Meta, Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs are jointly investing $300M in that effort.

The US government, Meta Platforms, and Google parent Alphabet are joining the nonprofit research organization Biohub to build open datasets for training artificial intelligence models for biological research. Biohub announced the move on the 7th, and total investment in the effort is expected to reach $1.8 billion. Meta, Google's DeepMind, and drug-discovery startup Isomorphic Labs will jointly invest $300 million in Biohub. The US Department of Energy will contribute more than $500 million over the next five years for laboratory measurement, modeling, and computation, while the National Institutes of Health will provide more than $500 million in federal funding to coordinate datasets and repositories built to date, which Biohub will standardize for AI training. Biohub is run as a philanthropic effort by Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

Paris-based biotechnology and AI company Rivercell has launched with a $25 million seed round led by HV to build data platforms and AI models that predict how human cells respond to treatment. HCVC, Alven and Bpifrance Digital Venture also participated in the round, which will fund the scale-up of Rivercell's proprietary data generation platform, the expansion of its wet lab in Paris, and the launch of its AI Virtual Cell program. The company was started in summer 2025 by CEO Yann Fleureau, the engineer-turned-entrepreneur behind AI company Cardiologs, and was joined in 2026 by co-founder and Chief Science Officer Eric Durand, an AI scientist and former C-Level executive at AI drug discovery unicorn Owkin. Rivercell's indication-agnostic world model is designed to predict how human cells respond to a drug or genetic change in silico, reducing the need for physical wet-lab experiments, with the company describing its purpose-built platform as the GPU for the bio data center of the future. Dr. Charlotte Bunne of EPFL and Prof. Fabian Theis of Helmholtz Munich have joined Rivercell's Scientific Advisory Board, and the company is also backed by angel investors including founders and executives from Twist Bioscience, DNA Script, Agilent and Abivax/Ipsen.

Therna Biosciences appointed Kevin Green, former Chief Business Officer of Inceptive, as Chief Operating Officer and added two AI technical leaders to its advisory team, while the NIH Common Fund selected the company as a Phase I winner of its Targeting RNA in Disease with Novel Technologies Challenge. Green, who joined Therna in August and brings more than 20 years of experience across AI-enabled drug discovery and RNA therapeutics, leads the company's operations and business development as its RNA-Logix platform moves into partnered and internal programs. The new AI advisors are Dr. Dave Burke, the first Chief Technology Officer of Arc Institute and previously Vice President of Engineering for Android at Google, and Mr. Harsh Mehta, co-founder and CTO of Mirendil and previously a Senior Research Scientist at Anthropic and a researcher at Google. Therna is one of 25 Phase I winners of the three-phase TRDNT Challenge, which offers up to $13.1 million in total awards as teams develop and validate their technologies through 2027. Therna's winning proposal introduces a co-scientist agent built on RNA-Logix that designs and optimizes sequence-specific activating antisense oligonucleotides for ultra-rare haploinsufficiencies.

insitro announced that the advanced machine learning models it built with Eli Lilly and Company to predict in vitro and in vivo properties of small molecules are now available to certain biotech companies through Lilly TuneLab. The models were trained on multi-species preclinical data that Lilly generated over decades of research from hundreds of thousands of unique molecules, offering an alternative to the industry standard method of extrapolation from in vitro assays. The collaboration, announced in September 2025, paired insitro's computational and AI/ML expertise with Lilly's proprietary preclinical dataset of in vitro and in vivo measurements across compounds with established ADMET properties. The in vivo PK models are a critical component of insitro's TherML platform for small molecule discovery, alongside machine learning and physics-based in silico screening, affinity models powered by proprietary adaptive DNA-encoded libraries generating data up to 1B compound scale, and an active-learning medicinal chemistry design engine. Lilly TuneLab is part of Lilly Catalyze360, alongside Lilly Ventures, Lilly Gateway Labs, and Lilly ExploR&D, and is built on a federated learning infrastructure hosted by a third-party provider.

Profluent announced a collaboration with BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. to design and optimize novel enzyme therapies for BioMarin's pipeline. Under the agreement, Profluent will apply its foundational AI models to generate novel potential drug candidates, and BioMarin will screen the results with the goal of eventually advancing the most promising designs. Profluent will design and optimize enzyme candidates using its suite of proprietary protein language models, which draw on the Profluent Protein Atlas, described as the largest protein sequence dataset in the world with more than 115 billion unique sequences. BioMarin will use Profluent's AI models to rapidly explore protein designs and identify candidates with desired activity and stability profiles, then advance the most promising into preclinical testing. Pooja Agarwal, Vice President and Head of Metabolic Conditions Research at BioMarin, said the collaboration pairs Profluent's de novo protein design approach with BioMarin's decades of enzyme therapy expertise, while Profluent CEO Ali Madani said the partnership aims to accelerate BioMarin's drug discovery pipeline.

Ginkgo Datapoints, an offering of Ginkgo Bioworks, and Apheris GmbH announced that the Antibody Developability Consortium has launched with AbbVie, argenx, Lundbeck, and Takeda as founding members. The industry collaboration aims to build the field's largest standardized antibody developability dataset, with each founding member contributing proprietary antibody sequences and Ginkgo Datapoints filling any remaining capacity from publicly available sources to reach 10,000 antibodies in total. Using Apheris' federated infrastructure, members can train, benchmark, and refine AI models on the full consortium dataset without exposing their raw proprietary sequences to other members, and they retain ownership of the sequences and assay data they contribute. Ginkgo Datapoints leads the scientific design and execution, including sequence selection, antibody production, and high-throughput wet-lab characterization, and trains a foundation antibody developability model within Apheris' secure environment. Charlotte Deane of the University of Oxford and Peter Tessier of the University of Michigan will provide independent scientific oversight, and the consortium's initial dataset is targeted for delivery to members by early 2027.

The commercialization of AI-driven drug development continues to move forward. Insilico Medicine announced a partnership to build a generative biology foundation model focused on biologic design and target optimization. The 2026 European Society for Medical Oncology annual meeting will open from October 23 to 27, featuring 28 breakthrough clinical studies led by or deeply involving China, of which 4 were selected for oral presentation in the plenary session, accounting for one-third of the total. In the pharmaceutical segment, 29 late-breaking abstract trial drugs were originally developed or co-developed by domestic Chinese pharmaceutical companies, covering multiple frontier areas including antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, and EGFR-TKI-resistant non-small cell lung cancer. Guosheng Securities noted that the radiopharmaceutical sector recently saw two major deals: Telix acquired ITM for 1.65 billion US dollars, and Borui Chuanghe signed a collaboration with Novartis worth up to 900 million US dollars. Meanwhile, Ionis' oligonucleotide therapy Ulefnersen met its primary endpoint in a Phase III study for FUS-ALS, providing the first effective treatment option for this rare disease. As of August 31, 2026, the top ten weighted stocks in the SSE STAR Market Biomedical Index accounted for 51.54% of the total, namely United Imaging Healthcare, BeiGene, Allist Pharmaceuticals, Baili Tianheng, Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals, RemeGen, iRay Technology, Huitai Medical, Junshi Biosciences, and MGI Tech.

AbbVie Inc. and Iambic announced a multi-year collaboration to use Iambic's AI platform to accelerate small-molecule drug discovery across immunology, neuroscience, and oncology. The partnership will use Iambic's Enchant v3 model, which is trained on more than 6,000 molecular properties and is designed to evaluate multiple drug characteristics simultaneously, with the companies pursuing candidates with first-in-class and best-in-class potential. Iambic will receive an upfront payment, milestone payments, and tiered royalties on net sales, though the financial terms were not disclosed. The deal comes as AbbVie leans on newer products to offset Humira's decline: in the first half of 2026, Skyrizi generated $9.99 billion, up 27.3%, and Rinvoq generated $4.64 billion, up 24.0%, while Humira revenue fell 37.3% to $1.44 billion, and Vraylar revenue rose 18.7% to $1.98 billion. AbbVie's second-quarter 2026 revenue reached $16.99 billion, up 10.2%, with Skyrizi and Rinvoq together generating $8.03 billion, up roughly 24% year over year, and its 2025 filing says U.S. composition-of-matter patents for Skyrizi and Rinvoq are expected to expire in 2033. The collaboration carries no immediate earnings catalyst, since any royalties or product revenue depend on successful discovery, clinical development, and regulatory approval, and AbbVie would share economics through milestone payments and tiered royalties if Iambic's models produce successful medicines.

Roche Holding announced new R&D alliances focused on AI-powered therapeutics and metabolic disease programs in late September 2026. The group signed a research partnership with Earendil Labs to apply AI to bispecific antibody cancer therapies across multiple tumor types, and agreed a collaboration with Atavistik Bio to pursue allosteric small molecules for cardiovascular, renal and metabolic conditions. Enicepatide, also known as CT-388, reported positive Phase 2 results in type 2 diabetes and obesity, highlighting Roche's GLP-1/GIP pipeline ambitions. The company's late stage pipeline includes 10 new molecular entities moving into Phase III and the potential launch of up to 19 medicines by the end of the decade, and the full story points toward a CHF370 fair value for Roche Holding. Analysts still flag execution and pricing pressure, especially in China and in obesity where Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are strong competitors.

XtalPi has submitted an Investigational New Drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for KQTD-126, a potential first-in-class gut-restricted pan-TRK inhibitor for chronic intestinal pain associated with irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. The candidate is the first program from XtalPi's proprietary pipeline to reach an IND submission since the portfolio was unveiled in the company's recent interim results. In preclinical studies, KQTD-126 achieved pan-TRK inhibition at sub-nanomolar concentrations, with an IC50 below 1 nM, and a gut tissue-to-blood exposure ratio exceeding 1,000 to 1, confining activity to the gastrointestinal tract to limit systemic exposure and avoid the neurological side effects of systemic TRK inhibitors. XtalPi said the compound was designed using its generative and predictive AI models integrated with automated chemistry robots, a closed-loop process of computational design, automated synthesis, screening, and molecular refinement. IBS affects approximately 10% to 15% of the global population, while more than 10 million people live with IBD, and BCC Research projects the global IBS and IBD therapeutics market will reach US$52.6 billion by 2030.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals has received more than $500 million in upfront and milestone payments from its portfolio of pharma, technology and data partnerships as of the second quarter of 2026, with cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash totaling $556.8 million at the end of June and a runway the company expects to extend into early 2028 without additional financing. Through its Bayer collaboration, Recursion is advancing precision oncology programs and is eligible for up to $1.5 billion in potential development and commercial milestones plus tiered royalties, while its partnerships with Roche and its wholly-owned subsidiary Genentech cover neuroscience and gastrointestinal oncology and could support up to 40 programs, each potentially generating more than $300 million in milestones plus tiered royalties. In the second quarter of 2026, Genentech advanced the first neuroscience target from the collaboration into early discovery, and partnerships with Sanofi and Merck KGaA offer up to $5.2 billion and $674 million respectively in potential milestone payments in addition to royalties. Recursion has also strengthened its AI infrastructure, with its NVIDIA partnership supporting the development of BioHive-2 and its 2024 combination with Exscientia enhancing computational chemistry and automated drug-design capabilities, and by August 2026 it had built and curated more than 50 petabytes of multimodal data. Technology and data partnerships with Google Cloud, Helix, Tempus and HealthVerity further broaden its platform, while competitors Relay Therapeutics and Schrödinger continue to build their own pipelines, and RXRX shares have lost 9.6% year to date against the industry's 8.5% growth, with 2026 loss estimates narrowing from $1.01 to 94 cents per share over the past 60 days.

BigHat Biosciences announced the completion of a $75 million Series C financing, bringing its total funding raised to date to $223 million. The round was co-led by DFJ Growth and Premji Invest, with participation from Catalio Capital Management, LG Technology Ventures, Sigmas Group, and existing investors including 8VC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Amgen Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Discovery Ventures, GRIDS Capital, Intermountain Ventures, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Quadrille Capital, and Section 32. Proceeds will support growth of BigHat's platform for rapid data generation to power frontier intelligence for protein design and advancement of its pipeline of AI-designed therapeutics, including BHB810 and BHB299, to key clinical readouts. BHB810, a CDH17-directed antibody-drug conjugate for gastric cancer and other advanced gastrointestinal tumors, is one of the first AI-driven biologics to reach humans and has begun dosing patients in a Phase 1 trial, while BHB299, an avidity-driven T-cell engager targeting CEACAM6-expressing solid tumors, is nearing completion of preclinical development with human trials planned for 2027. The financing follows the company's $80 million Series B in 2022 and a $44 million Series B extension in 2025, and comes as BigHat has forged collaborations with Amgen, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and Lilly.

Iambic Therapeutics filed for a U.S. IPO on September 21 after raising money from NVIDIA Corporation and Qatar Investment Authority, and the same day announced a multi-year research collaboration with AbbVie Inc. Under the agreement, AbbVie can use Iambic's Enchant platform to design small-molecule programs across immunology, neuroscience and oncology, with the deal including a $40 million upfront payment, up to $670 million in development and sales-based milestones across the two collaboration targets, and tiered royalties ranging from the mid-single digits to the low teens. AbbVie entered the collaboration from a position of operating strength, with Q2 2026 revenue of about $16.99 billion as Skyrizi and Rinvoq helped offset legacy Humira erosion. NVIDIA, meanwhile, stands to benefit as drug-design startups consume accelerated compute for training, simulation and inference, though even a successful biotech investment is tiny relative to its data-center business. The IPO will expose investors to the riskiest layer of the AI drug discovery value chain directly, while ABBV and NVDA offer more diversified ways to watch the same thesis.

Basecamp Research has raised a $140M Series C financing to train a new generation of EDEN models and advance a pipeline of AI-designed therapeutics toward clinical development. The oversubscribed round was led by S32, with participation from Anthropic's Anthology Fund, Catalio Capital Management, European Tech Collective, Firebrand River Capital, Inception Fund, King Philanthropies, NATO Innovation Fund, NVIDIA, PostScriptum, Redalpine, The Rockefeller Foundation, Singular, Sovereign AI and True Ventures, plus additional investment from senior leaders across pharma, biotech and global industry including André Hoffmann, Vice-Chairman of Roche. The London- and Boston-based company is applying EDEN, its biological foundation model, to in vivo cell therapy, pairing the model's ability to design long and complex DNA sequences with large serine recombinases that can precisely integrate them into the genome, an approach it says could transform treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Basecamp has demonstrated strong preclinical results across multiple modalities and disease areas, and has appointed Richard Pearce, formerly of Biogen, as Chief Business Officer to expand its pharmaceutical partnerships. Andy Conrad, General Partner at S32 and former CEO of Google's Verily, joins the Board of Directors. EDEN models are trained on the Trillion Gene Atlas, which Basecamp calls the world's largest proprietary biological AI training dataset, built with partners including NVIDIA, Anthropic, PacBio and Ultima Genomics and drawing on data collected through access and benefit-sharing partnerships in more than 30 countries across all seven continents.

XtalPi announced that Viva-Thera, a biotechnology company it incubated and backs as a strategic shareholder, has nominated a preclinical candidate targeting the membrane-proximal external region of HIV-1 gp41, completing discovery and optimization in seven months by combining Viva-Thera's atomic-resolution structural research with XtalPi's AI drug design and automation platform. Deploying generative AI from the outset, XtalPi navigated a chemical space of approximately 10 million compounds to isolate five validated hits with desirable drug properties and strong antiviral activity, then continuously optimized the leads to reach PCC nomination. The asset targets gp41-mediated membrane fusion at MPER, a region that retains approximately 90% sequence identity across viral strains, opening a path toward a broad-spectrum antiviral with a binding site distinct from those addressed by reverse-transcriptase, integrase, and protease inhibitors. In its public debut, Viva-Thera also reported that its MPER vaccine immunogens elicited antibody levels in rhesus macaques approximately five times those of the conventional HIV immunogen comparator, with antisera retaining substantial inhibition of HIV pseudovirus infection at a 1:1,000 dilution. The company is pursuing HIV prevention and cure through four modalities—vaccines, long-acting small molecules, gene therapy and cell therapy—and its gene-therapy program has completed vector construction, cell-infection experiments and CD4+ T-cell introduction in humanized mice, with live-virus infection and treatment studies in preparation.

The AI Structural Biology Network, powered by Apheris, launched AISB Bind, a federated initiative in which AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Johnson & Johnson will collaboratively train an AI model to predict how small molecules bind to protein targets for virtual screening and lead optimization. The new initiative extends the network's first effort, which focused on protein-ligand structure prediction, where a co-folding model fine-tuned across more than 20,000 proprietary structures from active drug-discovery programs raised the share of high-quality predictions from 36% to 52%, outperforming public models and any model fine-tuned on a single partner's data alone. In AISB Bind, the four founding partners contribute three complementary types of data: experimentally determined structures, quantitative affinity and potency measurements, and high-throughput screening activity data, the last adding a large body of confirmed non-binders that is rarely available at industrial scale. Training runs through federated learning, so each partner's proprietary data stays within its own secure environment, with Apheris hosting the network and running the training and each partner receiving the resulting model to run and further tailor internally. Federated training begins in September 2026, with final models expected in early 2027, powered by the infrastructure of Apheris's technology partner, Amazon Web Services.

Twist Bioscience Corporation confirmed on September 16 a strategic partnership with Lilly TuneLab, a platform created by Eli Lilly and Company, under which Twist will provide antibody characterization data services. Twist will also supply data to support AbLab, an antibody developability prediction model, along with high-throughput wet-lab data used to train and improve those models. Through the agreement, TuneLab users will be able to order Twist's antibody services using preferred Twist protocols, generating wet-lab data that can support AI-enabled antibody discovery. The companies did not disclose a minimum purchase commitment, contract value, or specific revenue guidance, and the announcement includes no rights to Lilly drug candidates, milestone payments, or royalties, so the near-term financial impact depends on how much TuneLab users ultimately purchase Twist's services. According to Insider Monkey's database, the number of hedge funds holding Twist rose to 42 in the second quarter from 30 in the first quarter, with Ark Investment Management cutting its position by 29% to $468.1 million, Farallon Capital raising its stake by 50% to $219.79 million, and DE Shaw increasing its position by 2,442% to $121.98 million, while short interest fell to 12.07 million shares as of August 31 from 14.08 million as of July 31 but remained elevated at approximately 18.20%.

Beijing has unveiled a five-year plan aimed at making China a global leader in drug innovation, with a target of developing 25% of the world's first-in-class drugs by 2030. The plan, issued in a joint notice from multiple government ministries, lays out 25 priority tasks spanning innovation capacity, research and technology, including expanded R&D, the use of AI and quantum computing in drug discovery, and the building of pharmaceutical ecosystems beyond pipelines. The government aims for the industry to reach 3.5tn yuan, or $520bn, in annual revenue by 2030, with 50 companies exceeding $1.5bn in annual revenue, and at least five Chinese drugs achieving global annual sales above $1bn. The notice singled out next-generation therapies including antibody-drug conjugates, cell and gene therapies, and CAR-T, along with vaccines and newer platforms such as mRNA, and included a section on industrialising traditional Chinese medicine. Citi analysts said the plan signals a shift from scale-driven growth toward innovation-driven, quality-oriented development, with a broad whole-value-chain policy push covering innovative drugs, medical devices, AI-driven drug discovery, and CDMO/CRO. The biomedical plan was released alongside counterparts for other strategic sectors, including integrated circuits, aerospace, the low-altitude economy, new energy storage and intelligent robotics.

Forus, an AI network focused on accelerating medicine, has raised $150 million in a Series C funding round that lifted its valuation to $3 billion, CEO Sahir Jaggi said on NYSE Live. The round was led by BCV, or Bain Capital Ventures, an investor since the seed stage, and every existing investor reinvested, Jaggi said. The company had not planned to raise, he added, but the business expanded faster than expected as physicians referred other physicians and life science companies sought partnerships at a rising pace. The capital will go toward three priorities: expanding the Forus platform to all major specialties and sites of care, from clinics to hospital systems; deepening the AI agents and models that power that growth; and expanding the team of engineers and operators to build out the network nationwide. Forus gives every prescription its own AI agent that handles phone calls, research and paperwork for high-cost, complex medications such as those for autoimmune diseases, COPD and cancers, with the goal of placing the platform in every doctor's office in America.

The National Medical Products Administration will advance the implementation of the pharmaceutical trial data protection system, establish market exclusivity periods for pediatric drugs and rare disease medications, and strengthen pre-guidance for innovative drugs with new targets and mechanisms. A responsible official from the NMPA stated that it will also expand the "Spring Rain Action" for transforming clinical innovations in medical devices, and formulate clinical trial and review guiding principles in frontier areas such as brain-computer interfaces. Zhongtai Securities noted that AI4S is expanding from single-point tool applications to coordinated development across data, models, wet-lab experiments, and R&D processes, and that life science upstream and CXO companies with high-quality data accumulation, automated experimental platforms, and industrial customer bases are expected to benefit continuously. As of 11:22 on September 21, 2026, the Penghua STAR Market Healthcare ETF rose 3.87%, with constituent stock HitGen up 14.54%, and Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals and Huiyu Pharmaceutical following the gains; the Penghua Hang Seng Biotech ETF rose 4.56%.

On September 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and eight other departments jointly issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for the development of the pharmaceutical industry, laying out 25 key tasks in eight areas. The plan proposes that by 2030, operating revenue of Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises above designated size will exceed 3.5 trillion yuan, the innovative drug industry will grow at an average annual rate of more than 20 percent, China's share of first-in-class innovative drugs globally will exceed 25 percent, more than 200 innovative medical devices will be launched, and the number of pharmaceutical industry parks with output of at least 100 billion yuan will reach 20. Boosted by the news, innovative drug and CRO stocks rose on September 21, with Nanhua Bio gaining for a third straight day, while Harbin Pharmaceutical Group and Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical hit their daily limits. The same day, PCB-related shares advanced, as research reports from multiple institutions noted that upstream raw material prices have kept climbing and PCB makers have begun repricing, with the third quarter of 2026 expected to mark the start of an earnings recovery for the sector. MLCC-related shares were active, as AI-driven demand has caused shortages and sharp price surges in high-capacity models, with some spot prices soaring several-fold. Humanoid robot stocks rebounded, after drone footage suggested that the main structure of Tesla Optimus's dedicated production line in Texas may be nearing completion; the line is scheduled to begin production in 2027 with an annual capacity target of 10 million units.

UBS Wealth Management says artificial intelligence is moving beyond text generation into scientific research, opening investment opportunities across AI infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, nuclear fusion, industrial materials and utilities. The shift was highlighted by OpenAI's recent mathematical proof related to the Navier-Stokes equations, a centuries-old fluid dynamics problem and one of seven Millennium Prize Problems, which OpenAI tackled using 10,000 autonomous AI agents working in parallel for 88 hours before formalizing the proof with Lean, a system for machine-checked mathematical validation. In pharmaceuticals, multi-agent AI systems can simulate millions of protein variations in the cloud, and more than 170 AI-designed programs are already in development or clinical evaluation, including Phase III trials. In nuclear fusion, reinforcement-learning systems can predict plasma disruptions around 200 milliseconds before they occur and adjust magnetic coils thousands of times per second, while AI models in materials science can test millions of elemental combinations daily in search of properties for lighter, higher-density batteries, lower-heat computing hardware and potential room-temperature superconductors. The broader investment case centers on AI becoming a tool for automating scientific research rather than simply generating content, with companies exposed to AI infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, industrial materials and utilities positioned to benefit as these technologies move toward commercial applications.

NAVER D2SF, NAVER's in-house corporate venture arm, has invested in Silicon Valley precision medicine company ImpriMed, joining ImpriMed's $10 million Series A2 bridge round. The round was led by LB Investment, with participation from new investors NAVER D2SF, Samsung Securities, and Alois Ventures, plus follow-on investments from existing investors BonAngels and Han River Partners; it follows ImpriMed's $23 million Series A in 2023. ImpriMed combines ex vivo analysis of patient-derived live cancer cells with genomic, immunophenotypic, and clinical data through its xCellSense platform, and is developing AI models trained on more than 3.5 million data points. The company is preparing to commercialize products for blood cancers and blood infection, targeting FDA clearance and CLIA certification by Q1 2027 for an initial U.S. launch, while in South Korea its multiple myeloma prognosis and therapy-response software has been designated an Innovative Medical Device by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. ImpriMed was co-founded by CEO Sungwon Lim and CTO Jamin Koo, and its human healthcare expansion is supported by veterinary precision oncology work covering more than 27,000 tests for canine and feline lymphoma, used by over 600 veterinary hospitals across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and South Korea.

Big Picture Bio Ltd. has been founded in London to identify, design and optimise promising cancer combination therapies using a generative world model of how tumours, immune cells and surrounding tissue interact across disease sites and patient subgroups. The company has closed a £1.5 million, or roughly $2 million USD, pre-seed funding round co-led by Kadmos Capital and Exceptional Ventures, with participation from Gloucester Ventures and angel investor John White. That pre-seed round is in addition to £700,000, or roughly $950,000 USD, in non-dilutive funding from Innovate UK through its Investor Partnerships Programme, bringing total funding to £2.2 million, or roughly $3 million USD, to take its first designed drug combinations from in silico design into wet lab validation. Big Picture Bio was founded by Dr Kerstin Papenfuss, CEO and co-founder, and Dr Mark Hammond, CTO and co-founder, both veterans of Deep Science Ventures, and is advised by Dr Laura Rosenberg and Dr Duncan Young of AstraZeneca, Dr Garry Pairaudeau of DaltonTx and former CTO of Exscientia, and Dr Christian Dillon of PhoreMost. The company said its platform has been validated against real-world clinical outcomes presented at ASCO and correctly predicted the failure of Regeneron's recent fianlimab trial.