Isomorphic Labs secures $600M in funding for AI drug design

Drug design and development company Isomorphic Labs announced it raised $600 million in its first external funding round.

Thrive Capital led the round, with participation from GV (Google Ventures) and existing investor Alphabet.

WHAT IT DOES

Isomorphic Labs, launched in 2021 with Google DeepMind, unveiled its newest joint AI offering AlphaFold 3, an AI model that was developed by Isomorphic Labs and Google DeepMind. 

The aim of AlphaFold 3 is to accurately predict the structure of proteins, DNA, RNA and ligands and how they interact. A ligand is an ion or molecule with a functional group that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. 

The two companies said they expect AlphaFold 3 to help transform the understanding of the biological world and drug discovery.

Since its launch, Isomorphic Labs has built an AI drug design engine beyond the AlphaFold system that is made up of predictive and generative AI models that have the ability to work across multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities. 

The company aims to use the funds to apply its AI drug design engine to deliver biomedical breakthroughs as well as advance its drug design programs across multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities. 

“We’re excited to bring together a top-tier investor group with deep AI and life sciences expertise as we aim to transform this industry through an interdisciplinary approach,” Isomorphic Labs founder and CEO Demis Hassabis said in a statement. 

“This funding will further turbocharge the development of our next-generation AI drug design engine, help us advance our own programs into clinical development, and is a significant step forward towards our mission of one day solving all disease with the help of AI.”

MARKET SNAPSHOT

In February, Isomorphic Labs entered into an agreement to expand its strategic research collaboration with pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The agreement came in the wake of a previous collaboration between the two companies in 2024.

In the new agreement, IsoLabs and Novartis expanded the scope of the initial collaboration, adding up to three additional research programs on the same financial terms as the original agreement. 

Last year, Isomorphic Labs entered into a strategic research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to discover small molecule therapeutics against multiple targets. Isomorphic received an upfront cash payment of $45 million.

Isomorphic also entered into a strategic research collaboration with Novartis to discover small molecule therapeutics against three undisclosed targets.

Google DeepMind launched AlphaProteo, an AI system aimed at helping biological and health researchers design novel, high-strength proteins that bind to target molecules with accuracy and strength.

AlphaProteo was trained on the Protein Data Bank (PDB) that allows breakthroughs in science and education by providing access and tools for exploration, visualization and analysis of experimentally determined 3D structures from the PDB archive.