Healx, Co-Founded by Viagra Inventor David Brown, Secures $10M Series A to Advance AI-Driven Drug Repurposing for Rare Diseases

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Healx, a company headquartered in Cambridge, UK, announced on July 26 that it had raised $10 million in its first round of financing, led by the London-based venture capital firm Balderton Capital. Other investors included UK venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners and Jonathan Milner, founder of life sciences supplier Abcam.

Tim Guilliams and David BrownThey are the two founders of Healx and also the founders of the Cambridge Rare Disease Network. This is not their most illustrious achievement; David Brown previously invented Pfizer’s renowned drug Viagra (sildenafil), which is now available as a generic medication. Tim Guilliams is a researcher at the University of Cambridge.

Healx uses machine learning algorithms and computational biology to identify novel drug applications for rare diseases. It collaborates with patient groups and charities to help pinpoint drug repurposing opportunities and translate basic research into viable potential therapies.

The company leverages the HealNet database to map over one billion interactions among diseases, patients, and medications, employing machine learning techniques for its construction and maintenance. The company plans to use its initial round of financing to expand its teams of software engineers, data scientists, pharmacologists, and drug development researchers.

Tim Guilliams, CEO of Healx, stated that artificial intelligence alone is insufficient for discovering new drugs for rare diseases; expertise from pharmaceutical specialists and disease-specific experts is also crucial. He remarked, “The missing piece in drug discovery is the integration of patient communities. We have partnered with them from the outset, enabling us to understand clinical needs, key symptoms, and previously tried but unsuccessful treatments. Through these partnerships, we gain access to data and key opinion leaders, allowing us to fully comprehend rare diseases. If funding is secured through drug development, a proportionate share of the returns will be allocated to support their research.”

The company stated that its platform identified a drug for Fragile X syndrome—the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability worldwide, which can also lead to autism—through a drug repurposing project. This therapeutic agent entered clinical trials 15 months ago. The project was conducted by the FRAXA Research Foundation, an organization primarily dedicated to researching Fragile X syndrome.

Worldwide, 350 million people suffer from rare diseases, with 95% of them receiving no treatment. These families must drive drug discovery and therapeutic development on their own. Healx aims to collaborate with these families to discover new drugs in a more systematic and scalable manner.

David Brown stated that AI can discover new drugs in a faster and more cost-effective manner. He said, “It takes approximately 18 months from inception to clinical trials, whereas pharmaceutical companies require five to seven years. We operate much faster and at a significantly lower cost, with total expenses amounting to around $100,000, compared to the tens of millions of dollars spent by pharmaceutical companies.”

“This is an entirely new model of drug discovery, fundamentally different from that of the pharmaceutical industry. We do not follow the linear process of selecting a disease, identifying a target, discovering lead compounds, and optimizing those leads—a approach universally adopted by others. Instead, we match drugs to patients’ gene expression profiles to identify agents that can restore them to normal levels, even though we do not fully understand the underlying mechanisms,” explained David Brown.

According to a report by Business Weekly, the success of this financing round is attributed to the appointment of Shaun Grady to Healx’s board of directors. Shaun Grady serves as Vice President of Commercial at AstraZeneca, where he leads transaction execution, due diligence, alliance management, and integration functions. His responsibilities include late-stage and in-market licensing and partnerships, as well as mergers and acquisitions and divestitures.

Shaun Grady has been involved in major projects, including the AstraZeneca merger, the creation of Avecia and Syngenta, the acquisitions of Cambridge Antibody Technology, MedImmune, and Amylin, as well as the spin-off of Albireo.

Going forward, Healx will focus primarily on rare cancers and neurological disorders. David Brown, CEO of Healx, stated, “To date, our work has been evenly split between rare cancers and neurological disorders, particularly epilepsy and autism spectrum disorder. We will continue along this path, as we have already developed substantial expertise in these areas; however, we remain open to pursuing low-hanging fruit in other fields if such opportunities arise.”

“What’s exciting is Healx’s huge potential,” commented Dr. Matt Might, Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Alabama. “While other companies build one-off AI systems that analyze smaller, fixed datasets as part of a broader drug discovery process, Healx is building a long-term platform capable of ingesting and leveraging data from any source to develop a holistic understanding of patients, diseases, and drugs.”

Healx is one of a growing number of companies leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning for drug discovery. Another company drawing significant attention is San Francisco-based Verge Genomics, which secured $32 million in strategic financing in early July. Investors included DFJ, WuXi AppTec’s Corporate Venture Fund, the ALS Investment Fund, Agent Capital, and OS Fund. Verge Genomics primarily focuses its research on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—conditions that have historically proven intractable for drug developers. For instance, approximately 400 clinical trials have been conducted for Alzheimer’s disease, yet only one drug has demonstrated efficacy; moreover, it merely alleviates symptoms without halting disease progression.

Also selected by Baidu Ventures is Engine Biosciences. Engine Biosciences (hereinafter referred to as “Engine”) has developed an AI-powered biomedical platform that enables researchers and drug developers to uncover the genetic interaction mechanisms and biological networks underlying diseases more quickly and effectively than traditional methods, test therapies specifically targeting these interactions, and perform analysis and prediction for precision medicine applications. The company is committed to improving drug discovery and pioneering biological network experimentation, thereby benefiting a larger number of patients.

In January 2018, Engine Biosciences announced the successful completion of a $10 million seed financing round, marking one of the largest seed rounds in Southeast Asia’s history. The round was co-led by Allsino Capital and Danhua Capital. Participating investors included WuXi AppTec, a global leader in the biopharmaceutical industry; EDBi; Lanting Investment; Baidu Ventures; United Group of America (UGA); and Nest.Bio Ventures.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake City-based Recursion announced that the FDA has given the green light to launch a clinical trial involving machine learning technology. However, this field is still in its infancy, and experts say there are not yet sufficient results to assess the value of AI and ML to the pharmaceutical industry.