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We鈥檝e all read the headlines of people with diseases or illnesses that end up not surviving due to the inability to pay for the necessary medicines. While these stories are heartbreaking, they probably won鈥檛 go away anytime in the near future.

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But a new startup has emerged that is hoping to make that problem go away sooner, rather than later.

, a biotech company aimed at creating less expensive medicine, has raised a massive 聽as first reported by Axios this morning. Specifically, the startup鈥檚 mission is to develop patent-protected drugs that will cost less than similar medicines.

An impressive list of backers participated in the financing, including , , 聽(a16z) and, , and .

Cambridge, Mass.-based EQRx says its goal is to take the traditional drug delivery model and essentially turn it on its head. What it鈥檚 planning is ambitious and if the company can pull it off it would be revolutionary. Its goal is to re-engineer the process by which drugs are made by creating 鈥渘ovel, patent-protected medicines at prices that are more affordable for people and sustainable for healthcare systems.鈥�

Not just more affordable. EQRx says its medicines and therapies will be available 鈥渁t dramatically lower prices.鈥� Chairman and CEO said technological advances have made treating certain diseases easier than in years past. Yet, those advances aren鈥檛 being passed on to people in the way of lower prices.

鈥淭he time is now for a market-based solution to rising drug costs,鈥� said Borisy, a serial healthcare entrepreneur who most recently served as partner at for over a decade. (Borisy reportedly made from Third Rock last year to pursue this venture. Notably, the firm is not an investor in EQRx.)

Dr. , a general partner at GV, said EQRx鈥檚 business model will 鈥渄eliver a sustainable approach for creating, reinvesting in and rewarding therapeutics innovation, while ensuring these new medicines are broadly accessible to people and healthcare systems through dramatically lower pricing.鈥�

Meanwhile, $200 million Series A rounds are certainly not the norm, but not as unusual as they used to be as the definition of stages continues to evolve鈥� a phenomenon we looked at here听补苍诲 here.

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