Latest news with #IsomorphicLabs
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UK biopharma innovator venture financing surges to $1.1bn in Q1 2025
UK biopharmaceutical companies saw a surge in venture financing for innovator drugs in 2024, with double the total deal value from 2022: $827m in 2022 to $1.7bn in 2024. This growth trend appears set to continue, with the total deal value in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025 already reaching a total of $1.1bn - a two-fold increase from $542m raised in Q4 2024, according to leading data and analytics company GlobalData's Pharma Intelligence Center Deals Database. Global biopharmaceutical venture financing reported downturns in 2022 and 2023, but the UK demonstrated resilience with sustained year-over-year (YoY) growth, signalling investor confidence in the UK as a hub of scientific excellence. In 2021, British Patient Capital launched the Life Sciences Investment Programme, a £200m ($269m) initiative that aimed to attract at least £400m in additional venture financing for UK-based life sciences companies. In May 2025, the UK government announced an initiative to boost domestic funding, known as the Mansion House Accord, under which leading pension providers committed to investing 5% of their funds in private UK-based companies, including those in the biotech industry. The Mansion House Accord is anticipated to unlock $25bn of investment for UK businesses by 2030. The venture financing raised in Q1 2025 involving innovator drugs was largely driven by two 'mega-rounds' - Isomorphic Labs with $600m and $411m with Verdiva Bio, highlighting an increase in investor selectivity, concentrating available capital into a smaller number of companies with high commercial potential. Furthermore, US investors were involved in almost the totality of the $1.1bn of the total venture financing deal value raised in Q1 2025 by UK biopharmaceutical companies, compared to UK investors' involvement of only $112.7m. The UK BioIndustry Association raised concerns that a dependency on US capital could prompt companies to relocate to the US and limit the reinvestment of returns into the UK biopharmaceutical sector, weakening its long-term growth. The UK biopharmaceutical industry continues to attract investor interest. However, investor appetite may be impacted following the UK government's decision, announced in March 2025, to increase the Statutory Scheme payment rate for branded medicines from 15.5% to 32.2% for the second half of 2025, with those under the 2024-28 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth increased to 22.9% for 2025. An anticipated increase in costs associated with these drug pricing policy changes could deter companies from developing drugs in the UK, which may slow UK-based innovation and reduce patient access to medicines. Sustained growth in venture financing and boosting domestic investment will be critical for translating UK-based innovation into commercial success. "UK biopharma innovator venture financing surges to $1.1bn in Q1 2025" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Biotech ‘megarounds' hold steady as startups, VCs wait on IPOs
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Biotechnology company funding rounds remain larger than they were in 2022 and 2023, in a sign venture firms continue to favor bigger bets rather than parceling their money into smaller, but more numerous, financings. The median funding round involving one of the roughly two dozen venture firms tracked by BioPharma Dive was worth $93 million during the first three months of 2025, according to BioPharma Dive data. That's roughly equal to the median for the same period last year, but higher than any other quarter in the two years previous. Median figures for financings in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2024 all eclipsed $100 million, the threshold often used to define biotech 'megarounds.' During the first quarter this year, about $3.2 billion of the $4.1 billion in investment tracked by BioPharma Dive came via these megarounds. The largest were a $600 million round for AI drug discovery company Isomorphic Labs, followed by a $411 million Series A for obesity startup Verdiva Bio, and a $351 million Series D for Eikon Therapeutics, a well-funded biotech formed around a type of microscope technology. The total number of megarounds involving the firms BioPharma Dive tracks climbed from 42 in 2023 to 72 last year. Another 13 took place in the first quarter, data show. The growth in round sizes is indicative of a trade-off venture firms appear more willing to make in the current climate. In joining bigger syndicates, investors dilute their ownership stake, but the companies they're backing have a better chance to survive, grow and 'not be immediately back in financing mode,' said Jack Bannister, senior managing director of Leerink Partners' equity capital markets team. Many recent megaround recipients had clinic-ready drug programs that originated from China. In the first two weeks of January alone, Verdiva, Windward Bio, Timberlyne Therapeutics and Ouro Medicines debuted with nine-figure raises to fund their China-sourced candidates. The trend reflects the close attention venture firms are now paying to China's fast-growing biotech industry. Startups in China can go from launch to clinical trials much more quickly, and at a lower cost, than their U.S. counterparts, making their drug prospects enticing to investors. Programs licensed from Chinese pharmaceutical companies are also now "clearly high quality,' said Srini Akkaraju, founder and managing general partner of Samsara BioCapital. 'You skip all of this, four years of toiling away to get to a drug and prove that it does something in humans,' Akkaraju said. 'You end up paying the upfront that covers that, or maybe covers that plus some. But you're starting right here, right now, with the actual clinical-stage asset.' Venture investors are also 'increasingly behaving like private equity firms,' searching for safer bets and quicker investment returns, said John Wu, a managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group. That shift makes a "sure thing" like a clinic-ready program from China more appealing. They're finding willing partners in China, as developers there struggle through a tight funding climate and, due to differences in drug pricing policies, face thinner sales margins. 'In order for these biotechs to actually get a return on their investment, they need to go global,' Wu said. The rise of these deals has created a cohort of startups with high valuations, which could complicate their path to public market. The result may be more 'down rounds,' where companies get lower valuations than they did in previous financings, in order to set up favorable conditions for a public offering or acquisition. According to Bannister, this valuation disconnect is a key reason why the pace of IPOs remain slow. Taking more money now allows startups to wait out the IPO market and potentially "revisit" the issue later. The additional money "is worth more than the theoretical downside of a higher post-money value," he said, referring to a company's stepped-up valuation after a large financing. The increase in round size has helped investment rebound from a recent low in the fourth quarter of 2023, when about $2.4 billion was doled out across 28 deals involving firms tracked by BioPharma Dive. Since then, quarterly totals have twice surpassed $4 billion, including the first three months of 2025. Some investors warn a slowdown could be coming, however. Sentiment among public investors is turning increasingly negative as biotech underperforms the broader market. Significant upheaval at the Food and Drug Administration has added regulatory uncertainty as well. Akkaraju expects that bearish sentiment to show up in funding totals over the next few months. "Everybody's hurting," he said. Recommended Reading Biotech startups are built on venture capital. Track funding rounds here. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alphabet's AI drug discovery platform Isomorphic Labs raises $600M from Thrive
Isomorphic Labs, the AI drug-discovery platform that was spun out of Google's DeepMind in 2021, has raised external capital for the first time. The $600 million round was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from GV and existing investor Alphabet, Google's parent, it said. The funding will accelerate further development of Isomorphic's AI drug design engine and support the company's goal of bringing its discovered drugs to clinical trials. Isomorphic Labs was founded by DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis by leveraging DeepMind's software for AI drug discovery, including AlphaFold, an AI model that predicts the three-dimensional structures of proteins. Last year, Isomorphic Labs secured strategic partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis, potentially generating up to $3 billion in milestone payments for access to its AI model. Hassabis told the New York Times that while Isomorphic Labs didn't need the capital, the extra funding will help the division hire top research scientists. For their work on AlphaFold, Hassabis and DeepMind researcher John Jumper were among the three scientists who received a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2024. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Sign in to access your portfolio
Boston Globe
31-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Primark CEO resigns after ‘error of judgment'
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up FUNDING Advertisement Isomorphic Labs, Google's AI drug business, raises $600 million Over the past 12 months, Google's efforts to use artificial intelligence to accelerate drug design have achieved breakthroughs in mimicking human biology and won its top scientists the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Now Isomorphic Labs, the division within the software giant meant to develop and commercialize the technology, is taking another big step: raising money from an outside investor. Isomorphic announced Monday that it had raised $600 million, led by Thrive Capital, the venture capital firm that has bet big on AI companies, including OpenAI. GV, Google's venture capital arm, and Alphabet, Google's parent company, also invested. The announcement underscores Google's ambitions for Isomorphic, which was spun out of the company's DeepMind lab to focus on drug discovery. It is built on software that DeepMind, a central intelligence lab in London, has developed. That includes AlphaFold, which can predict the structure of millions of proteins and more. — NEW YORK TIMES Advertisement ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI and satellites help aid workers respond to Myanmar earthquake damage People stand next to a damaged building in Mandalay on March 30. SAI AUNG MAIN/AFP via Getty Images Just after sunrise on Saturday, a satellite set its long-range camera on the city of Mandalay in Myanmar, not far from the epicenter of Friday's 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Southeast Asian country's second-largest city. The mission was to capture images that, combined with artificial intelligence technology, could help relief organizations quickly assess how many buildings had collapsed or were heavily damaged and where helpers most needed to go. At first, the high-tech computer vision approach wasn't working. 'The biggest challenge in this particular case was the clouds,' said Microsoft's chief data scientist, Juan Lavista Ferres. 'There's no way to see through clouds with this technology.' The clouds eventually moved and it took a few more hours for another satellite from San Francisco-based Planet Labs to capture the aerial pictures and send them to Microsoft's philanthropic AI for Good Lab. Once the AI analysis was complete, it showed 515 buildings in Mandalay with 80 percent to 100 percent damage and another 1,524 with between 20 percent and 80 percent damage. That showed the widespread gravity of the disaster, but, just as important, it helps pinpoint specific locations of damage. 'This is critical information for teams on the ground,' Lavista Ferres said. Microsoft cautioned that it 'should serve as a preliminary guide and will require on-the-ground verification for a complete understanding.' But in the meantime, the tech company has shared the analysis with aid groups such as the Red Cross. — ASSOCIATED PRESS Advertisement CONSUMERS Americans are spending less as they brace for new tariffs Americans are tapping the brakes on spending — pulling back on dining out, hotel stays, and other expenses, as they boost their savings ahead of new tariffs and continued economic uncertainty. Consumers are increasingly anxious about the economy, and they're curbing spending habits accordingly, data released Friday shows. Consumer spending inched up by 0.1 percent in February, after adjusting for inflation, following a 0.6 percent drop the month before, according to government figures. Meanwhile, the personal savings rate — or how much of their incomes people set aside — rose to 4.6 percent. A separate survey released by the University of Michigan, meanwhile, showed that Americans' views on the economy fell for a third straight month, to the lowest level since 2022, as households and businesses prepare for a wave of higher prices once new tariffs go into effect this week. 'Consumers are increasingly apprehensive about spending,' said Lydia Boussour, a senior economist at EY-Parthenon. 'We are seeing clear signs that people are being more careful — they're reluctant to spend on nonessential expenses. They're worried about inflation and have preemptive anxiety around tariffs.' Strikingly, economists say Americans of all income levels, including the wealthiest, are rethinking their spending — in what could be a pivotal warning. The drop-off in consumer spending is expected to drag down economic growth in the first three months of the year, with many economists now forecasting a contraction after years of consistent growth. — WASHINGTON POST Advertisement TRAVEL Air Canada says US bookings down 10 percent as trade war rages on Workers removed luggage from an Air Canada plane on the tarmac at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) in Montreal. Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg Air Canada says demand for flights between Canadian and US cities is weak for the spring and summer months, as Canadians respond to the trade war by avoiding trips south. Bookings for transborder flights were down 10 percent for the April-to-September period compared with the same period last year, as of mid-March, according to a presentation at the company's annual meeting. Air Canada is the largest Canadian airline and flies to more US destinations than any other. 'Am I concerned?' chairman Vagn Sørensen said in a response to a question from a shareholder during Monday's meeting. 'Yes, definitely, I'm concerned.' Shares of Air Canada are down 35 percent since the beginning of the year. Air Canada and WestJet said in separate statements last week that geopolitical tensions are causing some consumers to choose not to take vacations in the United States. The shift is part of a larger boycott of American products in response to President Trump's tariffs and his repeated statements that he believes Canada should be part of the United States. — BLOOMBERG NEWS AEROSPACE NASA's newly returned astronauts say they would fly on Boeing's Starliner capsule again Astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams, and Barry "Butch" Wilmore at a news conference at the NASA Johnson Space Center on March 31. Brandon Bell/Getty NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Monday that they hold themselves partly responsible for what went wrong on their space sprint-turned-marathon and would fly on Boeing's Starliner again. SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the International Space Station, filling in for Boeing that returned to Earth without them last year. In their first news conference since coming home, the pair said they were taken aback by all the interest and insisted they were only doing their job and putting the mission ahead of themselves and even their families. Wilmore didn't shy from accepting some of the blame for Boeing's bungled test flight. 'I'll start and point the finger and I'll blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide,' he told reporters. 'All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.' Both astronauts said they would strap into Starliner again. 'Because we're going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We're going to fix them. We're going to make it work,' Wilmore said, adding he'd go back up 'in a heartbeat.' — ASSOCIATED PRESS Advertisement
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Google-backed AI drug discovery startup raises $600 million
(Reuters) - Isomorphic Labs, which uses artificial intelligence technologies for drug discovery, has raised $600 million in its first ever external funding round led by Thrive Capital, the startup said on Monday. Google Ventures and Alphabet, an existing investor, also participated in the round. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Top tech companies are racing to position AI-powered offerings as central to their products and services. Startups catering to the surge in demand for generative AI and machine learning have been a bright spot in the private funding market. CONTEXT Isomorphic was founded in 2021 as a spin-off from Alphabet's AI research subsidiary Google Deepmind, which it acquired in 2014. Last May, the company unveiled the third major version of its Nobel-winning "AlphaFold" artificial intelligence model, which is able to predict almost all known proteins structures. WHAT'S NEXT The London-based company said funds raised will be used to accelerate research and development as well as talent acquisition. Founder and Chief Executive Officer Demis Hassabis, who also leads Deepmind, suggested in January that Isomorphic Labs will have AI-designed drugs in clinical trials by the end of 2025. Sign in to access your portfolio
