AI Startup snags $50 million to speed up clinical research

Unlearn.ai, an artificial intelligence startup that helps speed up clinical research, raised $50 million from investors led by Altimeter Capital Management to fund its push to upend drug development.

The San Francisco-based startup will use the capital to expand its team and boost engineering and R&D capabilities. Backers in the Series C round include Radical Ventures, Mubadala Capital and Wittington Ventures and others, the startup said on Thursday.

Unlearn’s strategy is to create digital copies, or virtual models, of clinical trial participants. Those digital twins take part in clinical trials just as human participants do. Humans and the digital copies are randomly assigned either the drug or placebo, and the digital copies forecast outcomes regardless of which one they receive. The approach allows trials to be done with fewer human participants, potentially saving time and money.

The method could help accelerate clinical studies and bring new treatments to patients sooner. Its unique AI models comply with the guidelines of the US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency.

Clinical trials are expensive and time-consuming, with challenges such as a lack of diversity among trial participants, delayed recruitment, long timelines and rising costs. Regulatory constraints remain, but newer startups like Unlearn are attempting to spur the process.

Unlearn was founded in 2017 by Charles Fisher, who teamed up with two other scientists to establish it as an AI research company. It has raised more than $130 million so far.

“Our goal is to solve AI for medicine,” Fisher, a PhD from Harvard University, said in a video interview. He declined to disclose the startup’s valuation.

Unlearn’s technology was first launched in the field of neurology by drugmakers developing treatments for conditions like ALS and Huntington’s Disease. It has since built models for immunology for ailments such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s Disease and also for cardiovascular metabolic conditions.

“Our new AI models help break research barriers,” said Fisher, also the startup’s chief executive officer. Drugmakers spend over $100 billion a year on clinical research, and the industry is ripe for disruption, he said.