The president of AI drug discovery firm Isomorphic Labs, Jasper Berg, has boldly predicted that artificial intelligence will design all future medications. Speaking at the Bloomberg Technology Conference in London on November 2nd, Berg stated, “This day will come. I have no doubt that all drugs in the future will be designed by AI. I just don’t want people to wait passively for it to happen in 20 or even 50 years.”
Isomorphic Labs aims to accelerate and enhance the efficiency of new drug development through AI. Currently, the company is in the preclinical trial phase, indicating that its journey is just beginning.
Founded as a spin-off from Alphabet’s Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs not only develops drugs autonomously using AI models but also provides drug development technology to major biopharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly and Novartis.
The company has secured approximately $2.7 billion in funding from investors including Alphabet and Thrive Capital. Isomorphic Labs is reportedly in talks for a new funding round, with a valuation that could reach $40 billion or higher. In May, during its last funding round announcement, the company did not disclose its valuation.
Established in 2021, Isomorphic Labs is led by Demis Hassabis, who was the CEO of Google DeepMind at the time. The company aims to build upon the breakthroughs achieved by the protein structure prediction model, AlphaFold, to advance drug discovery.
In August, Hassabis transitioned to the role of Chairman of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist at Alphabet, while continuing his leadership as CEO of Isomorphic Labs. This strategic move highlights the close ties and shared vision between the two entities in pushing the boundaries of AI in life sciences.
Isomorphic Labs focuses its autonomous drug development efforts on therapies for cancer, immune system disorders, and inflammation. Berg also commented on the traditional drug discovery process, noting its heavy reliance on trial-and-error and its tendency to yield only readily achievable results. “I think humans are not very good at discovering drugs. It’s a miracle that we have so many good drugs,” he remarked.
The company’s ambition is to fundamentally change this paradigm, leveraging AI’s computational power and pattern recognition capabilities to identify novel drug candidates and optimize their development pathways, potentially leading to faster breakthroughs and more effective treatments for a range of diseases.
