Less than a year after raising a $100-million B round, AI-powered drug discovery firm Iambic Therapeutics has added $50 million more to its coffers. The new funds will help Iambic further progress its lead programme, IAM1363. The brain-penetrant small molecule, which inhibits both wild-type and oncogenic HER2, is being tested in a Phase I trial as both monotherapy and in combination with Herceptin (trastuzumab) in patients with HER2-positive cancers. Both of Iambic’s disclosed programmes were discovered using the company’s AI models for holistic drug design. By integrating its algorithms with an automated and high-throughput biology and chemistry experimental platform, the company says it can identify new chemical mechanisms to address intractable biological targets. The technology is also designed to speed up drug discovery workflow by processing thousands of molecular constructs and enabling weekly 'design-make-test' cycles. Additionally, the platform can optimise a potential candidate’s therapeutic window and discover compounds with highly differentiated properties.
Mubadala partner Ayman AlAbdallah said Iambic’s AI-enabled drug discovery models have “demonstrated accuracy and speed… to rapidly advance candidates from discovery and into human studies.”