Isomorphic Labs, a pharmaceutical company owned by Alphabet, is preparing to begin human clinical trials for its AI-designed oncology drugs created with AlphaFold 3, a cutting-edge protein structure prediction developed alongside Google DeepMind. This marks a significant milestone for the use of artificial intelligence in drug development, with the company readying its first patients for dosing and expanding its team in anticipation, according to President Colin Murdoch in an interview with Fortune.
Established in 2021, Isomorphic Labs has been leveraging AlphaFold 3 to model complex molecular interactions and predict protein structures with high precision. This capability has allowed the company to accelerate drug discovery, particularly in oncology, where treatments are critical for targeting and managing cancer cells. Oncology drugs play a central role in cancer treatment, either destroying tumor cells or slowing their growth to allow for further intervention.
The scale of the challenge is immense. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were approximately 20 million new cancer diagnoses and 9.7 million cancer-related deaths in 2022. Technologies like AlphaFold 3 offer the potential to significantly improve drug discovery and development in this field.
In March 2023, Isomorphic Labs raised over $600 million in funding led by Thrive Capital. The funds are being directed toward advancing its AI-powered drug design platform and accelerating clinical progress. Demis Hassabis, CEO of both Isomorphic Labs and Google DeepMind, stated, “This funding will further turbocharge the development of our next-generation AI drug design engine, help us advance our own programmes into clinical development, and is a significant step forward towards our mission of one day solving all disease with the help of AI.”
The company has also secured major pharmaceutical partnerships, with deals totaling more than $3 billion, including collaborations with Novartis and Eli Lilly. Their ambition is to create a “world-class drug design engine” that combines AI insights with human expertise to produce more effective and affordable medicines.
As AI’s presence in biotech expands, companies like Anima Biotech, Iktos, and Novo Nordisk are also incorporating AI into their drug discovery efforts. According to GlobalData, over 3,000 AI-associated drugs are currently in development or repurposing stages, though most have yet to reach human clinical testing. Isomorphic Labs’ upcoming trials may serve as a major breakthrough in translating AI research into real-world treatments.
