The British startup for discovery and development of rare disease treatments Healx Ltd. raised $56 M in Series B funding to launch 40 rare disease programs while taking some of its existing assets into the clinic. The financing was led by UK VC, Atomico, joined by Intel Capital, Global Brain and btov Partners as new investors. Existing investors from Series A round, Balderton Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Jonathan Milner, also participated.
Healx is a drug repurposing company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify clinic-ready new treatments for rare diseases from existing, market-approved drugs. The AI platform integrates publications, clinical trial outcomes and proprietary biomedical data in the form of a graph that correlates the existing drug with potential therapeutic applications. The raised amount of $56 M, Healx plans to use to build a clinical-stage portfolio of drug candidates for rare diseases like Fragile X, Pitt Hopkins, and Barth syndrome.
In addition, the company plans to launch a global Rare Treatment Accelerator programme designed to allow experts to review the shared data and other resources, run it through the AI platform, and review and validate the predictions for clinical trials. Company’s aim is to discover new treatments and move them toward the clinic within 24 months, which is significantly faster than industry average now. Healx has an ambition to advance 100 rare disease treatments towards the clinic by 2025.
