Biotech startup Generate Biomedicines, which uses artificial intelligence to find new drugs, raised $273 million in a Series C funding round from investors including pharma company Amgen and the VC arm of AI giant NVIDIA.
Generate was founded in 2018 by venture-creation firm Flagship Pioneering to use machine learning algorithms to identify antibodies, peptides, cell therapies, and other medicines. It launched its first clinical trial in July for a Covid monoclonal antibody, and is working on starting another clinical trial for an asthma treatment.
The biotech, which is based in Somerville, Mass., has big plans for the next couple of years: It has another 15 drug candidates in the works and plans to introduce 10 more annually, CEO Mike Nally told STAT.