Isomorphic Labs, an AI drug discovery startup led by Demis Hassabis, raised a $2.1 billion Series B to scale its next phase. The funding is intended to turbocharge efforts by increasing compute capacity, generating more data, and building additional programs. More compute enables more experiments and more inferences, improving the pace of discovery. Hassabis also focuses on infrastructure and the future possibility of automated labs. He expects automation eventually but emphasizes getting timing right because research is still needed on automation methods and on the specific repeatable steps that could be automated. Drug discovery remains highly trial-and-error, with low odds of success through clinical trials and even lower odds of reaching full FDA approval.
"“Wherever there's friction, we don't really accept that, for starters,” he told Fortune. “But near-term, the obvious thing is more compute... It's not the same amount of compute an AGI lab needs, but with more compute, the more experiments we can do, the more inferences we can run.”"
"“I've no doubt that, at some point, we will go out and do that, but we want to get the timing right,” he said. “There's still more research to be done on the automation piece, and on the specific repeatable steps you'd want to automate.”"
"Isomorphic has yet to bring a drug into clinical trials. Hassabis declined to offer a timeline, but the implication Drug discovery is, historically, a scientific process that involves a spectacular amount of trial and error. And often, even when a drug beats the low odds of making it to clinical trials, it's rarer still for a new pharmaceutical to make it to full FDA approval."
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