Shanda Networking: AI-driven biotech Iambic snags $100M to enter the clinic next year in HER2 field

Another AI-driven biotech has reeled in Series B funding, with Iambic Therapeutics disclosing a $100 million round a week after Evozyne nabbed $81 million. Both are working with technology and receiving capital from the computational powerhouse Nvidia. Formerly known as Entos, the oral small molecule startup will use the funds to start its first clinical trial early next year, CEO Tom Miller told Endpoints News. Iambic had originally targeted $80 million for the round but received outsized investor interest, Miller said, noting the startup's ability to go from program launch to IND submission in about 24 months. Aside from Nvidia, the La Jolla, CA-based Iambic also nabbed money from Ascenta Capital, Abingworth, Illumina Ventures, Gradiant Corporation and board member Bill Rastetter. Original backers Nexus Ventures, Catalio Capital Management, Coatue, FreeFlow, OrbiMed and Sequoia Capital also took part, Iambic said Tuesday morning. The biotech emerged as Entos with $53 million in July 2021 based on tech from the labs of Miller and Fred Manby at Caltech and University of Bristol, respectively. Miller and Manby, the chief technical officer, recruited ex-Plexxikon CEO Chao Zhang as scientific chief a year ago. The team has grown to about 60 employees, split evenly among drug hunters and AI and software engineers, Miller said. Iambic uses quantum mechanics and physics-informed AI to map chemical space. The new proceeds will take the biotech "well into 2026" and bankroll clinical studies of multiple drug candidates, Miller said. He also expects news in the "coming quarters" around collaborations. The first candidate, IAM-H1, is a brain-penetrant HER2 inhibitor that will enter human studies next year. "Not far behind that" is IAM-C1, a dual CDK2/4 inhibitor going after cyclin D and cyclin E-driven cancers, the CEO said. Miller said Iambic's third and fourth programs are looking at allosteric inhibition and modulation of protein-protein interactions. "Iambic is a nod to the human language. It's a nod to the role of large language models in creating that current generation and next generation of technologies that drive our platform," Miller said of the rebranding from Entos. The Series B funding comes as other AI-driven biotech startups emerge and as some of the more established players prioritize their pipelines.