top of page

Presentation by Dmitry Kaminskiy: Keypoints

dpi-investment-digest-and-overview.png

Keypoints by Dmitry Kaminskiy

AI in Pharma Investment Trends: Major Take-Aways

​

  • The segment of pharmaceutical AI continues consolidation; 

  • Pharmaceutical AI sector is “heating up” for investments;

  • Big pharma and contract research organizations increasingly compete for AI partnerships;

  • COVID-19 pandemics appears to be a positive catalyst for the acceleration of the AI adoption;

  • A number of companies successfully completed rounds B,C,D, and one company made IPO

 

​

Global Context

​

  • US remains the major player and driver in AI in Pharma 

  • China’s activities are rapidly growing and the region is exhibiting extensive investment activity 

  • UK and Europe has traditionally been a strong ground for biopharma activity, and continue to be

 

2021-2022 Projections

​

  • The overall biotech and drug discovery sectors will be on the rise;

  • The sector of pharmaceutical AI is maturing for a likely wave of IPOs and M&As in 2021-2022;

  • Sector will attract significant number of non-biotech investors to enter the Life Sciences sector;

  • The activities on the secondary market deals will increase; 

  • The year of 2022 can be considered at the year for matured consolidation of the AI Pharma Sector

 

Extended Key Points and Key Trends for 2020

​

  • The AI Pharma Market and Landscape continues to grow exponentially, as of 2020 it contains:

    • 240 Companies (actual scope around 400) 

    • 600 Investors (actual scope around 1400 )

    • 90 Corporations (actual scope around 200)

  • Number and size of investments are also growing rapidly. Some of the major deals between Q4 2019 - Q4 2020 include

    • XtalPi - $319 million (Round C)

    • Recursion Pharmaceuticals - $239 million (Round D)

    • Schrodinger IPO - $232 Million

    • Insitro - $143 million (Round B)

    • Atomwise with $123 million (Series B)

    • AbCellera - $105 million (Round B)

    • Insilico Medicine - $39 million (Round B) 

  • An important driver of growth for the sector is a substantial shift in Big Pharma’s interest in AI technology from “nice to try” to “strategically important”. 

  • Such increasing market demand will drive more exits in future, and is important for heating up the investor’s interest in this sector.

  • The rising interest of leading pharma and contract research organizations towards AI-driven biotech startups is a major driver for the area to become more attractive for investors, since the industry is becoming well-suited for successful exit strategies in future. 

  • The rising interest of leading pharma and contract research organizations towards AI-driven biotech startups is a major driver for the area to become more attractive for investors, since the industry is becoming well-suited for successful exit strategies in future.

  • The leading players by the amount of major industry partnerships are Bayer, Pfizer and AstraZeneca. 

  • These companies demonstrate increasing commitment to probing the grounds in the AI space — by investing into internal programs, as well as partnering with external AI vendors to pilot programs in drug discovery and other research areas. 

  • The most common type of deals are true partnerships and saving the costs deals.

  • The leading big pharma brands are increasingly open to partnerships with AI startups and biotechs to get competitive edge, and mitigate the problem of declining R&D efficiency

  • The biggest number of AI in Drug Discovery deals was conducted by Exscientia. 

  • The company engages in small molecule drug discovery, selective single target molecules, bispecific small molecules, and phenotypic drug design. 

  • All of the deals concluded with this company were categorized as the ones aiming at saving costs and increasing operational efficiency due to the character of the services provided.

bottom of page