Alphabets Isomorphic Labs raises $600M in first funding round for AI drug business

Isomorphic Labs, Google’s artificial intelligence drug business, raised $600 million in its first external funding round, the company said on Monday.Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm, led the funding round with participation from Google Ventures, the company said in a press release.It will receive follow-on capital from existing backer Alphabet.The London-based company’s goal is an ambitious one – to “solve all disease,” according to the Isomorphic Labs site.The AI research lab, which launched in 2021, aims to transform the drug discovery and design process by using artificial intelligence, a method that could drastically speed up breakthroughs.The Alphabet subsidiary already has a Nobel Prize under its belt for the development of AlphaFold, an AI platform that can predict protein structures in minutes.

AlphaFold has “already potentially saved millions of dollars and hundreds of millions of years in research time,” Google boasted on the DeepMind website.Isomorphic Labs said it will use the new funding to further its research and expand its team.“This funding will further turbocharge the development of our next-generation AI drug design engine, help us advance our own programs into clinical development, and is a significant step forward towards our mission of one day solving all disease with the help of AI,” Demis Hassabis, Isomorphic Labs founder and chief executive, said in a statement.Hassabis is also the chief executive of DeepMind Technologies, Alphabet’s artificial intelligence research group.Isomorphic Labs has partnered with major pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and Novartis.Alphabet has several other health-related subsidiaries, including Verily, a healthcare software firm, and Calico, which studies ways to expand lifespans....