Key Highlights
- $14.5 Million Raised: Seed funding led by DCVC Bio to advance clinical-stage drug discovery.
- Innovative Collaboration: Research with Schrödinger and Microsoft Research AI4Science detailed in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling.
- Significant Efficiency Gains: ML integration achieves faster, cost-effective lead-to-drug optimization.
Source: Business Wire
Notable Quotes
- “Avicenna is applying novel ML methods to navigate the unknowns in medicinal chemistry and design around them. Our methods allow a drug design team to learn from years of failure and optimize against validated targets more efficiently.” – Dr. Thomas Kaiser, Co-founder & CSO at Avicenna Biosciences
- “Avicenna’s collaborative research with Schrödinger and Microsoft demonstrates how a physics-based augmentation of ML requires just tens of molecules to optimize small molecules against a new drug target, as opposed to thousands.” – Dr. John Hamer, Managing Partner at DCVC Bio
SoHC's Take
Avicenna Biosciences is shaping up as a formidable contender in the medicinal chemistry arena with its ML-driven approach. The integration of machine learning not only accelerates the drug discovery process but also significantly lowers developmental costs and increases the success rate of clinical trials. Such innovations are crucial in the pharmaceutical industry, where the failure rate is notably high and the financial stakes are enormous. Avicenna’s technology could be the key to unlocking new, effective treatments faster than ever before, especially for challenging diseases like neurodegenerative disorders.
