附近上门

, which is using artificial intelligence for small molecule drug discovery, received a cash infusion of $123 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing.

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San Francisco-based Atomwise touts being the creator of the first convolutional neural networks, or visual imagery, using AI technology for drug discovery, a market to reach $40 billion in value by 2027, according to .

To date, Atomwise has provided AI technology to more than 750 academic research collaborations addressing over 600 disease targets, , co-founder and CEO told 附近上门 News.

and led the investment that also included existing investors , , , , , , as well as two undisclosed insurance companies.

This brings the total amount of capital raised, since Atomwise鈥檚 inception in 2012, to almost $175 million. This includes a closed in 2018, according to 附近上门 data.

鈥楢 lot of ways to grow鈥�

With the new investment, Atomwise will continue to scale its AI technology platform and team, build its own internal pipeline and work with large partners, Heifets said. To date, Atomwise has signed joint-venture investments for small molecule drug programs valued at $5.5 billion with corporate partners that include , , and .

鈥淭here are a lot of ways to grow,鈥� he added. 鈥淲e are also going to focus on what is unique about us: drugging the undruggable. We have an opportunity here that is four times bigger than the pharmaceutical industry is today.鈥�

What he means by 鈥渦ndruggable鈥� is creating drugs for diseases that don鈥檛 have one yet. Just 4 percent of genetic diseases have a -approved drug, while there are 16 percent without any drugs designed, Heifets said.

Atomwise is focusing finding drugs that target the intended molecule and also only shuts down that one process, he added.

The company has 55 employees and is currently hiring for all positions from engineers to machine-learning experts, from medical chemists and toxicologists to business development.

In the past 12 months, Atomwise has received more than 1,000 inbound applications from institutions wanting to work with the company.

鈥淚 think it means that we have challenged the AI brain with more targets, diversity of targets, more proteins and different kinds of properties,鈥� Heifets said. 鈥淣ow we are leveraging all that work to take those assets and drive them toward patients.鈥�

What investors are saying

As part of the investment, of B Capital Group joined the company鈥檚 board, while of Sanabil was appointed a board observer.

Ganguly said in a written statement that Atomwise鈥檚 platform is cutting months or even years off of the often lengthy research and development lifecycle of a drug.

鈥淢ore importantly, however, they are solving biology problems previously believed to be unsolvable by researchers and delivering that capability to everyone from academics to big pharma,鈥� he added.

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