Nimbus Therapeutics Secures $210 Million Investment from GV, Google’s Investment Arm, for AI-Driven Drug Discovery
Nimbus Therapeutics LLC, a trailblazing player in the pharmaceutical industry, has recently garnered substantial investment from GV, the investment arm affiliated with tech giant Google. The company, known for licensing drugs to industry giants like Gilead Sciences Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and forming strategic partnerships with leaders like Eli Lilly and Company, unveiled a successful funding round of $210 million on a recent Wednesday.
The driving force behind this investment is GV, marking its inaugural involvement with Nimbus Therapeutics. Alongside GV, an unnamed U.S.-based life sciences-focused fund joined the funding round. Existing investors, including SR One, Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, BVF Partners L.P., Gates Frontier, Lightstone Ventures, Pfizer Inc.’s venture arm, RA Capital Management, and SV Health Investors, also participated in the funding round.
Krishna Yeshwant, General Partner at GV, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “Nimbus is a leader in integrating cutting-edge computational chemistry, high-tech structural biology tools, and other industry-shaping technologies and approaches. We’re thrilled to support CEO Jeb Keiper and the team as they bring difficult-to-drug, high-impact targets within reach across a wide range of therapeutic areas.”
Nimbus Therapeutics specializes in utilizing artificial intelligence and computational tools to expedite the drug discovery and development process. In a remarkable feat, the company sold a psoriasis drug to Takeda for an upfront payment of $4 billion. Remarkably, this drug was selected from a pool of potential candidates in just six months, with the invaluable assistance of AI technology.
This psoriasis drug has successfully advanced to midstage human trials as of March, and Takeda has plans to proceed with Phase 3 studies later this year. These Phase 3 trials represent the final stages necessary before seeking FDA approval, underscoring the company’s significant progress in drug development.
Nimbus Therapeutics has strategically shifted its focus to target autoimmune diseases, including psoriasis, following the sale of a liver disease drug to Gilead in a $1.2 billion deal. Additionally, the company is actively engaged in developing drugs to combat specific types of cancer. Notably, its partnership with Eli Lilly, valued at $496 million, revolves around drugs designed to activate a specific isoform of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a pivotal enzyme involved in cellular energy regulation, with the aim of addressing metabolic disorders.
This latest funding round follows Nimbus’s previous venture round, which occurred almost precisely a year ago when the company secured a $125 million investment. These substantial investments emphasize the continued confidence and support from both new and existing investors in Nimbus Therapeutics’ groundbreaking approach to drug discovery, underpinned by cutting-edge AI technology and computational tools.
