Reid Hoffman-Backed Manas AI Raises $24.6 Million for Cancer Drug Development

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee raised $24.6 million in a seed round to launch an artificial intelligence startup focused on drug development.

Called Manas AI, the startup will cover the entire therapeutic development pipeline, from target identification to clinical trials, according to a Monday (Jan. 27) press release. It will initially focus on cancer before expanding to include autoimmune diseases and rare conditions.

“Picture Nobel laureates, National Academy members and pioneering researchers who’ve dedicated their lives to understanding disease working hand-in-hand with advanced AI systems, exploring chemical spaces and analyzing molecular interactions at speeds 100 times faster than traditional methods,” Mukherjee and Hoffman wrote in a Monday blog post. “These brilliant minds aren’t being replaced by AI — they’re being empowered by it.”

Manas AI will generate chemical libraries and use AI filters to identify therapeutic candidates with high potential; enable molecular docking at speeds that are 100 times faster than traditional systems; and map the fundamental “rules” of drug binding, according to the release.

The company’s seed round was led by General Catalyst, per the release.

“Manas AI has the potential to compress the timeline to discovery of effective drug candidates while increasing the likelihood of success in clinical trials,” Ken Frazier, chairman of health assurance initiatives at General Catalyst and former chairman and CEO of Merck, said in the release. “This is a unique opportunity to dramatically change the drug discovery landscape and make a positive impact on billions of people around the world.”

AI promises to remake drug discovery, PYMNTS reported in September.

The technology has the potential to transform the healthcare space by improving drug discovery, diagnostics and patient care, among other benefits, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Generative AI Can Elevate Health and Revolutionize Healthcare.”

At the same time, there are challenges to overcome, including the need for further development and public acceptance as well as robust regulation, the report found.

Nobel laureate and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said Tuesday (Jan. 21) that he expects to see pharmaceutical drugs designed by AI to be in clinical trials by the end of the year.

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