It currently feels like a new techbio AI drug discovery play is launched on a weekly basis, whi...

It currently feels like a new techbio AI drug discovery play is launched on a weekly basis, which shows that the AI hype in this field isn't over yet.

The latest one, called Manas AI, includes Reid Hoffmann, of LinkedIn fame. It is hard to say what really differentiates them from the many other recent launches, as "it generates bespoke chemical libraries and utilizes advanced AI filters to identify high-potential therapeutic candidates with paradigm-shifting speed and accuracy", and a focus on some of the harder to crack cancers, doesn't sound particularly unique. All this is done in partnership with Microsoft.

Unlike competitors like Xaira, it also hasn't raised "up to $1bn" just yet, but the investors, including famous names like Greylock and General Catalyst, gave it a comfortable seed round of around $25M.

I'm really curious to see how these new generation of companies will fare, compared to previous biotech platform plays. While I personally see a huge potential of AI to accelerate the discovery process, there are still a lot of steps, things llike MedChem and Toxicology to just name a few, that take time, even with AI acceleration.

https://lnkd.in/eGA63JZr