据Mark Bergen、Natasha Mascarenhas、Rebecca Torrence和Ed Ludlow报道，由Alphabet旗下Google DeepMind孵化出的AI药物研发初创企业Isomorphic Labs目前正在进行新一轮融资洽谈，预计估值将至少达到400亿美元。据知情人士透露，此次融资甚至可能使公司估值升至500亿美元。不过目前融资尚未完成，具体细节仍有可能变动，Isomorphic Labs方面也未对此事作出回应。
Labs, an AI-powered drug discovery startup spun out of Alphabet Inc.’s Google DeepMind, is in early talks to raise new funds at a valuation of at least $40 billion, according to people familiar with the effort. The round could value Isomorphic as highly as $50 billion, one of the people said. The financing hasn’t closed and details could change, the people said. Isomorphic did not respond to a request for comment.
据彭博社报道，就在5个月前，Isomorphic Labs刚刚完成了21亿美元的B轮融资。当时，身兼DeepMind董事长与Isomorphic Labs首席执行官的Demis Hassabis表示，Alphabet为此次融资提供了“很大一部分”资金，但他并未透露Alphabet的持股比例及公司的具体估值。
Only five months ago, Isomorphic Labs raised $2.1 billion in its series B funding effort, Bloomberg News reported. At the time, the company’s chief executive officer Demis Hassabis, who is also chairman of DeepMind, said Alphabet provided a “large part” of the financing round but declined to comment on Alphabet’s stake or his company’s valuation.
Hassabis此前曾担任DeepMind的负责人，今年8月他宣布将转任董事长并出任Alphabet的首席科学家，同时继续担任Isomorphic Labs的CEO。这家总部位于伦敦的企业成立于2021年，旨在将DeepMind研发的突破性技术AlphaFold转化为商业应用。目前市场上已有多家企业试图将前沿AI技术应用于医药领域，其中包括今年发布了生命科学研究专用模型的OpenAI。
Hassabis was formerly the head of DeepMind, but in August announced that he was shifting to a chairman role and becoming Alphabet’s chief scientist, while remaining CEO of Isomorphic. London-based Isomorphic Labs was formed in 2021 out of DeepMind with the goal of commercializing the lab’s breakthrough AlphaFold protein-folding model. It competes with an array of businesses trying to apply the latest AI advances to medicine. That includes OpenAI, which this year released a model for life sciences research.
尽管AI技术有望大幅缩短药物研发周期并降低成本，但目前仅有极少数相关项目进入临床试验阶段，尚未有任何产品正式上市。Isomorphic Labs已与礼来、诺华等大型制药企业达成合作，计划重点研发治疗癌症及免疫类疾病的药物。除了与制药企业合作开发药物外，该公司还计划自行设计并研发新药。
While AI developers promise to dramatically reduce the time and cost of developing drugs, few have progressed to clinical trials and none have brought medicine to the market. Isomorphic Labs has announced partnerships with major pharmaceutical firms, including Eli Lilly & Co. and Novartis AG, and shared plans to focus on treating cancer and immune disorders. In addition to working with pharma companies to leverage its AI drug discovery models, Isomorphic is also aiming to design and develop drugs in house.