BenevolentAI Grabs $115 Million to Advance its Drug Development Programs

The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in drug development has been ramping up and investors are taking keen notice of the growing trend. This morning London-based BenevolentAI snagged $115 million to give it a total of about $200 million in its coffers.

BenevolentAI, which is applying artificial intelligence to develop new medicines for hard to treat diseases, said it will use the funds from the financing round to advance its artificial intelligence driven drug development programs. The company also said it will use the financing to broaden the disease areas on which it focuses, and extend its AI platform capabilities even further. Some of the proceeds from the financing round will be used to explore other science-based industries, including agriculture and energy storage, the company said.

Following the latest financing, BenevolentAI said it has a pre-money valuation of $2 billion.

BenevolentAI has 20 drug programs in its pipeline. Currently, BenevolentAI is using its platform to develop treatments for a wide range of unmet patient needs in various areas including Motor Neuron Disease, Parkinson’s disease, Glioblastoma and Sarcopenia.

The latest funding round, which was primarily supported by investors from the United States, is one of the largest in the AI pharmaceutical sector, the company said this morning. The $115 million the company gathered dwarfs the $15 million secured by the China-based AI startup XtalPi Inc. earlier this year.

Kevin Mulaney, founder and chairman of BenevolentAI, said the financial support the company received in its latest fundraising effort reflects the "rapidly growing global interest in the AI pharmaceutical sector" and the company’s position in that field.

"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," Mulaney said in a statement.

The U.K. company said its drug-development portfolio shows that its AI platform can cut early-stage drug discovery by four years. Additionally, BenevolentAI said it can potentially deliver efficiencies in the entire drug development process of 60 percent against pharmaceutical industry averages – "significantly disrupting an industry that spends $180 billion a year on R&D."

The company boldly said its artificial intelligence program can "outperform human scientists" in understanding the cause of a disease and is also capable of "quickly generating drug candidates at scale."

"The technology is also able to decipher the molecular process of disease and link these disease signatures within patients to ensure that the best drug candidate is given to the best patient responders – the ‘right drugs in the right patients’," the company said on its website.

The use of artificial intelligence in drug development is becoming more and more common. In July 2017 pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline forged a $43 million deal with AI company Exscientia to spur drug development. GSK said it will be using AI to discover novel and selective small molecules for up to 10 disease-related targets across multiple therapeutic areas. Also in July 2017 the Mayo Clinic and nference launched a startup company called Qrativ that is focused on drug development that will be powered by clinical expertise and artificial intelligence. Innovator Elon Musk launched the biotech company Neuralink that has the lofty goal of linking the human brain with a computer.

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