AI-Driven Drug Development Startup Pathos AI Raises $365 Million

Pathos AI, a startup leveraging artificial intelligence to develop innovative cancer treatments, has announced the successful raise of $365 million in a recent funding round.

The company did not reveal the investors participating in this Series D round. According to FierceBiotech, both existing and new backers of Pathos contributed to this financing. The company is now valued at $16 billion, with previous investments coming from NEA, General Atlantic, and other institutional investors.

The company has created PathOS, a specialized platform designed to assist pharmaceutical researchers in their work. As stated by Pathos, this software contains several petabytes of oncology and genomic data. Scientists can utilize this information to identify ways to enhance clinical trials for new medications.

Pathos is currently conducting trials on two cancer drugs licensed from Novo Nordisk AS and Prelude Therapeutics Inc. The newly acquired funds will support these clinical studies while also enabling further development of what Pathos describes as the largest AI foundational model for cancer research.

The AI system is built to process diverse types of clinical, molecular, and imaging data. It aims to help drug manufacturers design more effective clinical trials while streamlining various other tasks. Pathos claims that its algorithm will significantly improve operational efficiency in multiple research areas.

Many oncology research initiatives focus on cancer biomarkers - substances and biological processes associated with cancer. These biomarkers are crucial for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Pathos states that its AI model will enable researchers to discover new biomarkers more efficiently.

In April, the company partnered with AstraZeneca plc and medical technology firm Tempus AI Inc. to advance its AI development efforts. Tempus, which went public last year with a $410 million offering, will provide anonymized oncology data to train the models. This collaboration includes a $200 million agreement covering data licensing and model development.

"Pathos was founded to revolutionize drug development by fully harnessing multimodal data and AI," said CEO Iker Huerga. "With this funding, we're building one of the most advanced AI engines, designed to accelerate development, deepen clinical insights, and ensure the right therapies reach patients who need them most."

Other companies are also developing AI models optimized for medical research. In March, Google LLC introduced TxGemma, a series of language models helping researchers accelerate drug discovery. Previously, Microsoft Corp. launched TamGen, an algorithm automating aspects of discovering molecules with therapeutic applications.