Pathos AI Raises $237 Million to Expand AI-Driven Drug Development
Pathos AI Inc. today announced that it has successfully raised $237 million in Series E funding, placing its valuation at $3 billion. The funding round was led by pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co., with participation from several unnamed returning investors. Pathos’ notable investors also include industry leaders such as AstraZeneca plc, NEA, and General Atlantic.
The company is at the forefront of developing cancer drugs through its sophisticated artificial intelligence platform known as Foundry. This innovative software leverages approximately 200 petabytes of oncological data, as well as insights generated from Pathos’ own drug development initiatives. Foundry effectively analyzes these extensive datasets, enabling the company’s researchers to work more efficiently.
In pharmaceutical research, programs often yield hundreds of potential drug candidates. Foundry employs AI agents to identify the most promising molecules from this pool. Once the candidates are selected, the platform helps determine which patients would benefit the most from each specific therapy.
In addition to identifying drug candidates, Pathos utilizes Foundry to strategically plan its clinical trials. The company emphasizes its focus on “biomarker-driven” trials, which utilize biological indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments. These biomarkers can manifest in various forms, including proteins or measurable patient metrics such as blood pressure.
“We are building a platform to systematically improve the probability of success in drug development,” said Iker Huerga, Chief Executive Officer of Pathos. “Foundry has fundamentally accelerated our ability to identify highly promising clinical assets and integrate them into our pipeline.”
Pathos intends to allocate its Series E funding primarily towards expediting its drug development efforts, with particular emphasis on its JSKN016 program. This initiative aims to develop a cancer therapy based on an emerging class of medicines known as antibody-drug conjugates.
Antibody-drug conjugates are enhanced antibodies designed to identify and bind to disease-causing cells. Once attached, these antibodies signal the immune system to target and destroy the corresponding cells. In a more advanced process, antibody-drug conjugates deliver therapeutic agents directly to cancer cells, neutralizing them uniquely and effectively.
Additionally, Pathos will utilize part of its series funding to support three other drug development programs. One key initiative includes a collaboration with AstraZeneca, which invested in Pathos last year to develop an ER PROTAC drug. This innovative approach works by utilizing the body’s innate material recycling mechanisms to combat cancer.
The recent investment from Bristol Myers Squibb is part of a broader collaboration between the two companies, which also includes Tempus AI Inc., a publicly traded medical data company. Under the partnership, Pathos will pay Tempus $55 million over five years for the licensing of anonymized patient data related to neurological conditions. Foundry will analyze this data to deepen the understanding of disease biology, while making both the software and dataset available to Bristol Myers Squibb to enhance its clinical trials and patient identification for new drug therapies.