13 February 2025 · 1 min read
Is AI truly rewriting the rules of drug discovery - or is it just another buzzword?
I explore whether AI is truly rewriting the rules of drug discovery or just riding a wave of hype — from Latent Labs' €48M funding round to the real-world limits of fully in silico drug development. I genuinely believe we'll see the first 100% AI-discovered drug hit the market within the next 5–7 years.
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Last updated
6 May 2026
Is AI truly rewriting the rules of drug discovery - or is it just another buzzword?
There's a ton of buzz in AI-driven drug discovery this year- and here's the latest headline: Sofinnova Partners and fellow VCs have just unveiled a €48M funding round for Latent Labs, led by CEO Simon Kohl - of AlphaFold2-fame (the Nobel prize-winning sensation if you've been sleeping under a rock). This round isn't an isolated incident; it's the latest in a string of bold bets on AI in tech-bio (I've covered most of them here previously).
At the same time, Brittany Trang of STAT News also digs into the "hype vs reality" of AI drug development, examining cases where companies claim to have built drugs entirely from scratch using AI. It's a compelling read - and worth getting past the paywall.
The bottom line? Drug discovery remains a complex, multi-step process.
While AI is turbocharging many stages, we're still in that transition phase from traditional methods to a fully in silico approach.
Even so, accelerating individual steps can make a huge impact, and I genuinely believe we'll see the first 100% AI-discovered drug hit the market within the next 5-7 years - maybe from Latent?