Healx Secures $56 Million Series B Funding to Advance AI-Driven Rare Disease Therapies

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on October 16, 2019, Healx, a technology company focused on rare disease treatments, completed a $56 million Series B financing round. The round was led by the venture capital firm Atomico, with participation from Intel Capital, GlobalBrain, and btov Partners. Existing investors, including Balderton Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Jonathan Milner, also participated in this round.

Healx, founded in Cambridgeshire, UK, in 2005, is a startup that combines artificial intelligence with specialized pharmacology to discover new therapies for rare diseases. The company has accelerated its entry into clinical trials over the past two years.

Healx’s latest funding round will be used to expand the company’s product portfolio and launch its Global Rare Disease Treatment Accelerator Program. This program will collaborate with patient groups to more effectively discover drugs for rare diseases.

The traditional model of new drug discovery and clinical development entails extremely high costs and time investments. Typically, pharmaceutical companies require 12 to 14 years to develop a new drug, with a failure rate as high as 95%. Bringing a successfully developed new drug to market usually costs an additional $2 to $3 billion. Healx’s AI-driven approach accelerates this process, making it more efficient and cost-effective.

Healx is the world’s leading AI-driven drug discovery platform for rare diseases. It integrates scientific literature, clinical trial results, and proprietary data into a biomedical knowledge graph to uncover potential therapeutic relationships between drugs and diseases. Healx’s team of rare disease drug development experts collaborates with Healnet to identify and validate the most effective treatments for specific conditions.

The company had previously validated the utility of its AI-driven R&D model through the FRAXA Research Foundation. Fragile X syndrome is the leading genetic cause of autism, and until now, no rational therapeutic approach existed for this condition. Through this collaboration, Healx and FRAXA will soon initiate robust clinical trials to test various combination therapies, aiming to identify an effective treatment for the disease.

Healx’s mission is to discover 100 clinical treatments for rare diseases by 2025.

Dr. Tim Guilliams, Co-founder and CEO of Healx, said: “The scale of our Series A and B financing demonstrates external recognition of our platform’s value and growth trajectory. These funds enable us to launch the Rare Disease Accelerator program, expand our impact, and conduct clinical trials.”

Several drugs invented by Dr. David Brown, co-founder of Healx, have generated $40 billion in revenue for the company since being launched on the market, demonstrating their substantial economic value.

“Irina Haivas, Partner at Atomico and Board Member of Healx, said, ‘The expensive, trial-and-error-driven drug discovery model has not improved for a century. The Healx team is paving the way for a new gold standard in rare disease treatment discovery.’”

In July 2018, Healx completed a $10 million Series A financing round, led by Balderton Capital. In 2016, Healx secured a £1.5 million seed funding round, led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Jonathan Milner. Since the Series A round, Healx has continued to strengthen its senior executive team, with the total number of employees doubling.

Atomico, founded in London, UK, is an international technology investment firm. With offices in Beijing, Istanbul, São Paulo, Stockholm, and Tokyo, the company focuses on investing in emerging consumer technology sectors with the potential to transform markets.

Intel Capital, established in 1991, is a division of Intel Corporation dedicated to managing corporate venture capital, global investments, and mergers and acquisitions. It has invested in a portfolio of technology startups.

GlobalBrain, headquartered in New Zealand, is a technology company featuring revolutionary new search technology. The company was acquired by NBCI in 2000.

Btov Partners, founded in Switzerland in 2000, is a venture capital firm dedicated to early-stage investments in digital and industrial technology companies. The firm has offices in Berlin, Munich, and St. Gallen, and manages assets exceeding €420 million.

(Compiled by Jiang Ying)