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For Alex Zhavoronkov, the recent biotech market downturn is, in fact, a good thing.
The Insilico CEO — in his signature confident exuberance — said the crisis is washing out the “tiny players” in the artificial intelligence space that can’t stand the trial by fire. Besides, under such volatile conditions, the $60 million Series D he just raised makes for a “heroic testament” to the progress his company has made.
Although he didn’t exactly need the cash right now, the infusion could keep Insilico going for at least three years, said Zhavoronkov, adding he’s looking to move a number of assets along in the clinic, including pushing a fibrosis program into Phase II.
“You can see that some of the biotech companies out there are slaughtered,” he told Endpoints News. “Every day I’m being approached by an AI company because they are running out of cash. And so right now you can see the clear winners are crystallized, right?”
In fact, he is one of the investors for this new round, which comes just a year after the $255 million Series C and sports a higher valuation.
In addition to current investors Warburg Pincus, Qiming Venture Partners, BOLD Capital Partners and Pavilion Capital, a mix of new investors also jumped on board, including BHR Investment and “a large, diversified asset management firm on the US West Coast.”
Within the buzzy, burgeoning sphere of AI-powered drug discovery Insilico counts itself as one of the few that can truly do it all — with three pieces of software to find targets, generate drug candidates and design clinical trials, respectively. The biotech uses all of them in its own R&D work, and it also licenses them out to academic and biopharma partners.
“We decided that we are going to sell software anyway because it makes us make great software,” Zhavoronkov said. “If you want to ensure that you are true to yourself and you’re truly using AI, you need to sell software. Otherwise, you’re not a true AI company; you’re just like any other pharma.”
Feng Ren
Taking its drug discovery process as an example, he explained that once the first platform identifies a new target and it’s validated in a wet lab, Insilico would use the second platform to design new molecules, the best of which then get synthesized and tested across a network of CROs. Under Feng Ren, a GSK vet who joined Insilico last year as CSO and head of R&D, the company works with over 80 CROs, often running many experiments in parallel.
Zhavoronkov admits that this means the process is more expensive on a per molecule basis, but the AI also helps save on the sheer number of compounds they need to screen.
“So usually Big Pharma does, you know, from 500 to 1000 molecules per program,” he said. “For us, the average is like 70 to 80 molecules per program.”
Still, he’s eager to automate more parts of the process. In September, Insilico will launch a lab in Suzhou Biobay that’s fully run by robots — “No humans are allowed,” according to Zhavoronkov — with capabilities to perform culturing, cell imaging, tissue sample preparation, sequencing and more. While Insilico sources its robots from vendors, he said the team does collaborate with those companies to make the robots better or, in the future, miniaturize them.
A team of about 20 people is working in a lab on a different floor.
“Without robotics, you’re probably looking at maybe like 100, 150 people that would be required to run it,” he said.
The ultimate goal and heart of the business model, he added, is to churn out a steady stream of solid drug candidates that Insilico can then develop in partnership with other, bigger companies, in deals like the one he recently signed with China’s Fosun Pharma.
“I would really like to partner in the IND-enabling stage,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of really hot assets there that we want to license out.”
Health equity innovation must go beyond the science
Just as scientific innovation is essential to advancing health, systemic healthcare innovation is required to tackle health disparities. Factors outside of science – such as racism, discrimination, and lack of access to quality health care – create barriers that prevent some people from benefiting from hard-won scientific advancements. Innovation must go beyond science to address disparities in cancer care.
Leading a Revolution in Cancer Care Means Facing Health Equity Challenges
Examining the Critical Gap
The last few decades have been years of amazing progress in how we approach cancer care: emphasizing regular screenings, early diagnoses and treatment with targeted therapies that are helping many patients live longer and healthier than ever before. We in the oncology community are proud of the hope we’ve brought to people facing this disease. However, the pandemic brought to light how health disparities can set us back from achieving our ultimate goal of eliminating cancer as a cause of death.