pathos

Pathos AI Secures $365 Million in Series D Financing to Advance Oncology Drug Development Through AI

Thu, 15 May 2025 23:45:19 GMT

New York, NY, May 15th, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pathos AI, ( www.pathos.com ), a leading AI-driven biotech company applying cutting-edge artificial intelligence to drug development, today announced its $365 million Series D financing, bringing its post-money valuation to approximately $1.6 billion.

This financing marks a major milestone for Pathos as it expands its AI-enabled platform to drive greater speed, precision, and success in oncology drug development. The proceeds will support advancement of the company’s clinical-stage pipeline and continued investment in its proprietary AI Foundation Model purpose-built for oncology.

As part of this next phase, Pathos is developing the largest multimodal foundation model in oncology. This groundbreaking effort leverages deep clinical, molecular, and imaging data to improve clinical asset selection, clinical trial design, biomarker discovery, and therapeutic innovation across the oncology landscape.

“Pathos was founded to transform drug development by harnessing the full potential of multimodal data and AI,” said Iker Huerga, CEO of Pathos AI. “With this financing, we’re building one of the most advanced AI engines, designed to accelerate development, deepen clinical insight, and ensure the right therapies reach the patients who need them most.”

Founded to accelerate innovation in oncology, Pathos is pioneering a new model for AI-enabled drug development. One that leverages multimodal data, advanced Artificial Intelligence, and deep clinical insight to bring new therapies to patients faster. With a strong focus on Artificial Intelligence, clinical development, and clinical execution, Pathos is committed to improving patient outcomes by accelerating the path from molecule to medicine.

contacts

Business Development: bd@pathos.com

Press Inquiries: press@pathos.com

Pathos AI Appoints Iker Huerga as Chief Executive Officer to Lead the Next Era of AI-Enabled Drug Development

Thu, 08 May 2025 23:50:31 GMT

New York, NY, May 8th, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pathos AI, (www.pathos.com), a leading AI-enabled biotech company focused on transforming drug development in oncology, today announced the appointment of Iker Huerga as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member.

Huerga brings over two decades of experience at the intersection of artificial intelligence and oncology drug development. He was most recently Chief Data Scientist for Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca and formerly Executive Vice President at Tempus Labs. A repeat biotech entrepreneur, he has founded three oncology companies, with two successful exits. At Pathos, Huerga will lead the company’s next phase of growth as it scales its AI-driven platform to accelerate clinical success in oncology.

“I’m thrilled to join Pathos at this pivotal moment,” said Huerga. “We’re building the first true AI-enabled drug development platform—one that prioritizes clinical outcomes, precision in patient selection, and speed to patients. With our unique multimodal data and AI capabilities, we believe Pathos can dramatically accelerate oncology drug development and bring new life to promising compounds that have been overlooked or deprioritized.”

Under Huerga’s leadership, Pathos will expand its mission to integrate multimodal data, advanced artificial intelligence, and clinical insight into a next-generation platform for oncology innovation, accelerating the path from molecule to medicine for patients worldwide.

As part of the leadership transition, Ryan Fukushima, who served as interim CEO, will take on a new role as Advisor and remain a Board Member.

Pathos is pioneering a new model for AI-enabled drug development—one that leverages multimodal data, advanced artificial intelligence, and deep clinical insight to bring new therapies to patients faster. With a strong focus on Artificial Intelligence, clinical development, and clinical execution, Pathos is committed to improving patient outcomes by accelerating the path from molecule to medicine.

contacts

Business Development: bd@pathos.com

Press Inquiries: press@pathos.com

Pathos Signs Strategic Agreements with AstraZeneca and Tempus to Develop the Largest Multimodal Foundation Model in Oncology

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 14:52:45 GMT

CHICAGO, April 23, 2025 — Pathos AI, Inc.(www.pathos.com), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on re-engineering drug development through artificial intelligence, today announced multi-year, strategic collaborations with AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN) and Tempus AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: TEM), in which the companies will work together to build a multimodal foundation model in oncology which can be used to gather biological and clinical insights, discover novel drug targets, and develop therapeutics for the broader oncology community.

Pathos will use Tempus’ de-identified oncology data to build the foundation model. Upon completion, the model will be shared among all three parties to advance their individual efforts to improve patient care. The agreements include $200 million in data licensing and model development fees to Tempus.

“As artificial intelligence becomes more prominent in drug discovery and development, the opportunity for companies like Pathos to build foundation models that seemed almost unimaginable a few years ago is now taking shape,” said Mohamad Makhzoumi, Co-CEO of NEA and Pathos Board Member. “We couldn’t be more excited to collaborate with Tempus and AstraZeneca given the potential of these models to improve patient outcomes.”

“Generative AI and the emergence of large multimodal models is the final catalyst needed to usher in precision medicine in oncology at scale,” said Eric Lefkofsky, Founder and CEO of Tempus. “Tempus has spent the last decade investing billions of dollars into collecting the necessary data needed for a foundation model of this kind to take shape. We look forward to working with AstraZeneca and Pathos to apply AI-enabled solutions to advance therapies in an effort to help patients live longer and healthier lives.”

“Cancer drug discovery and clinical development are being transformed by the ability to analyze vast amounts of rich data using artificial intelligence,” said Jorge Reis-Filho, Chief AI and Data Scientist, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca. “We are excited to collaborate with Tempus and Pathos to advance our data and AI-driven R&D strategy through the development of a multimodal oncology foundation model that we believe will accelerate and increase the probability of clinical success across our diverse pipeline.”

Pathos AI Doses First Patient in Phase 1b/2a Clinical Trial of Pocenbrodib, a CBP/p300 Inhibitor

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:57:51 GMT

CHICAGO, Mar. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pathos AI, (www.pathos.com), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on re-engineering drug development through artificial intelligence, announced the first patient has been dosed in the Company’s Phase 1b/2a clinical trial evaluating pocenbrodib, a CBP/p300 inhibitor, alone and in combination with abiraterone acetate, olaparib or 177Lu-PSMA-617 in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), (P300-02-001, NCT06785636). Pocenbrodib is Pathos’ first clinical-stage asset in its pipeline.

“The clinical promise of pocenbrodib, our potential best-in-class CBP/p300 inhibitor, lies not only in its remarkable efficacy in resistant prostate cancer models, but also in our sophisticated biomarker strategy that identifies patients most likely to benefit,” said Dr. Jens Renstrup, Chief Medical Officer. “Our precision medicine approach allows us to target the underlying resistance mechanisms to AR-targeted therapy through CBP/p300 inhibition, addressing a significant area of high unmet need for patients with advanced prostate cancer. By integrating multiomic data tied to real-world outcomes to identify specific molecular signatures, our PathOSTM platform enables us to select the right patients for treatment, potentially improving outcomes in a disease with limited therapeutic options as resistance develops. This study builds on the previously reported data from COURAGE study (NCT04575766) in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and reinforces our confidence in pocenbrodib’s potential to improve outcomes for these patients.”

Study P300-02-001 is a multicenter, open-label, dose-finding Phase 1b/2a clinical trial to confirm the safety, pharmacokinetics (PK), preliminary antitumor activity, and pharmacodynamics (PD) of pocenbrodib alone or in combination with abiraterone acetate, olaparib or 177Lu-PSMA-617, in adults with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The study is expected to enroll approximately 203 patients with mCRPC who have progressed despite prior therapy and have been treated with at least one anti-androgen therapy (enzalutamide, apalutamide, abiraterone acetate, or darolutamide). The primary objectives of the study are to assess the safety, objective response rate, and PSA decline of pocenbrodib alone and in combination with abiraterone acetate, olaparib or 177Lu-PSMA-617, and to define a preliminary recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D) of pocenbrodib in combination with abiraterone acetate, olaparib or 177Lu-PSMA-617.

About Pocenbrodib

Pocenbrodib is an oral, small molecule inhibitor that has the potential to provide clinical benefit for patients with advanced prostate cancer, either alone or in combination with other treatments. Pocenbrodib works by inhibiting CREBBP/EP300 (also known as CBP/p300), which are proteins that activate genes that promote cancer cell growth and proliferation. Inhibiting these proteins impacts the expression of key cancer drivers, including the androgen receptor (AR) and its variants, making pocenbrodib relevant not only to advanced prostate cancer, but also to other cancer indications, either alone or in combination with other treatments.

About Pathos AI

Pathos is a clinical-stage biotechnology company powered by advanced AI that is re-engineering drug development by optimizing patient selection strategies in phase 2 clinical trials. Through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, Pathos leverages AI-driven computational approaches across multimodal real-world data and patient-derived biological models to accelerate precision medicine development. Pathos has raised over $100 million to expand its AI platform and bring targeted treatments to patients faster. Additional information can be found at www.pathos.com.

contacts

Business Development: bd@pathos.com

Press Inquiries: press@pathos.com

Pathos AI Closes $62M Oversubscribed Series C Round of Financing to Accelerate its Platform Approach to Drug Development

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:08:36 GMT

CHICAGO, Oct. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pathos AI, (www.pathos.com), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on re-engineering drug development through artificial intelligence, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed $62M Series C funding round. The Series C financing round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from Revolution Growth and other existing insiders. This new capital infusion will enable Pathos to expand its team of world-class scientists and engineers, accelerate the development of its AI-powered drug development platform, and advance its clinical-stage pipeline of precision oncology therapeutics. This latest round, which also included its existing investors, Lightbank and Builders VC, was completed at a $600 million post money valuation, bringing the three-year-old company’s total funding to $102M.

In the last 12 months, Pathos has acquired two clinical-stage precision oncology assets with plans to launch the next clinical trials in 2025. For both therapeutics, P-300 and P-500, the PathOS™ platform is fueling its patient selection strategy and clinical trial design to improve the likelihood of success. For example, Pathos was able to prioritize certain biological mechanisms that are relevant for P-500, a phase-II ready, brain-penetrant PRMT5 inhibitor, and those same mechanisms were driving different patient outcomes for a subgroup of IDH+ high-grade glioma patients in the real-world. This insight can help identify the patients most likely to benefit from P-500 and explain mechanistically why certain patients responded to P-500 while others did not respond in the Phase I clinical trial. Pathos plans to translate this insight into an enhanced patient selection strategy and launch the next clinical trial to demonstrate an improved efficacy signal.

“There are hundreds of investigational drugs with phase I results demonstrating a tolerable safety profile and modest efficacy, yet too many of these drugs go on to fail in future phases in clinical trials. By leveraging AI to understand why some patients respond and others do not, we believe we can materially increase the probability of successful trials, accelerate development through the clinic, and help resurrect failed or shelved compounds for the patients they were meant to serve,” said Ryan Fukushima, Interim CEO of Pathos. “We are excited to work alongside a great group of investors that share our passion to radically improve drug development. This funding will allow us to scale our operations and translate our insights to improve the lives of patients at an accelerated pace.”

“We believe Pathos’ mission to revolutionize drug discovery and development by combining best-in-class AI capabilities with large libraries of clinical patient data resonates with NEA’s storied history of investing at the intersection of technology and life science,” said Mohamad Makhzoumi, Co-CEO, NEA. “We are thrilled to lead Pathos’ Series C financing and to bring our expertise to this strategic partnership as Ryan and the pathos team work to pioneer the future of precision medicine.”

With an initial focus on phase II oncology clinical trials, Pathos is applying its AI platform to acquire additional clinical stage opportunities with phase I results, demonstrating a safe and tolerable profile. Pathos is systematically identifying causal links of critical biological mechanisms that drive certain cancers and lead to worse patient outcomes in the real-world. With this information, Pathos prioritizes critical biological mechanisms and acquires great drugs with the relevant mechanisms of action to attack cancers in particular patient sub-populations. By pairing the right patient selection strategies with great oncology therapeutics, Pathos believes it can partner with biopharma to usher in the next era of precision medicine and improve the current success rates in clinical trials at the same time.

About PathOS ™ Platform

We have built a proprietary platform and operating model called PathOS™ to gain crucial insights and act on them at scale. We do this using a causal AI framework analyzing changes in expression levels across all genes which are both associated with overall survival and known to be regulated by the mechanism of a given drug. Our AI models are fueled by one of the largest multimodal real-world datasets with patient outcomes, DNA sequencing and RNA sequencing data. By combining our in silico insights with ex-vivo drug screening approaches, we orthogonally verify whether our patient selection strategies are predictive of future patient benefit prior to designing our phase II clinical trials.

About Pathos

Pathos is an AI-enabled biotechnology company focused on re-engineering drug development, leveraging the power of technology to bring precision medicine to patients through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Pathos has raised over $100 million to accelerate the development of precision medicines and to expand its platform, combining computational approaches across multimodal real-world data and patient-derived biological models. Additional information can be found at www.pathos.com.

contacts

Business Development: bd@pathos.com

Press Inquiries: press@pathos.com

Pathos Expands Pipeline With Worldwide License of Phase 2-ready Program, a Brain-penetrant, PRMT5 Inhibitor

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:11:33 GMT

Chicago – Pathos AI, Inc. (www.pathos.com), a biotechnology company focused on revolutionizing precision medicine in cancer by harnessing the power of machine learning to transform drug development, announced today the world-wide license of PRT811, a potent, selective, and orally bioavailable brain penetrant SAM-competitive PRMT5 inhibitor from Prelude Therapeutics.

PRT811 (renamed P-500) was developed by Prelude Therapeutics and completed a Phase 1 trial in March 2023. The trial enrolled patients with solid tumors including high-grade glioma and uveal melanoma and has potential application in other indications with high unmet need. Out of 16 patients with high-grade glioma with isocitrate dehydrogenase mutations (IDH+) in the Phase 1 trial, two confirmed complete responses (CR) were observed. At last follow-up, 1 response is ongoing and has lasted 31.0 months while the duration of response for the second CR patient was 7.5 months. Additionally, 1 patient achieved an unconfirmed partial response (PR).

In addition, out of 23 uveal melanoma patients (10 patients with splicing factor 3B subunit 1 (SF3B1) splicing mutations and 13 without an SF3B1 mutation), one confirmed PR (duration of response of 10 months) and a second unconfirmed PR were observed, both in patients SF3B1 mutations.

In the entire safety population (N=86), the most common adverse events of any grade, with an incidence of >20% were nausea (60.5%), vomiting (46.5%) fatigue (36.0%), constipation (29.1%), and thrombocytopenia (24.4%), and were predominantly grade 1-2. The most common adverse events (grade ≥3), occurring >5% were thrombocytopenia (9.3%), anemia (9.3%), and fatigue (5.8%).

“These results from Prelude’s Phase 1 study are promising news for high-grade glioma patients and clinicians, who still have limited treatment options with chemotherapy and radiation that hasn’t changed in decades. With our AI Platform, we aim to increase the already encouraging response rate of P-500 through a novel biomarker-driven strategy, ultimately bringing this medicine to patients as efficiently as possible,” said Ryan Fukushima, Pathos CEO.

“Prelude’s discovery engine has delivered a number of first- or best-in-class precision medicines including PRT811, a molecule that has shown early promise in the treatment of high-grade glioma. We are confident that Pathos AI, sharing our passion for precision medicine and commitment to serving cancer patients with high unmet need, is an ideal company to drive the development of this molecule forward for patients.” said Sean Brusky, Prelude CBO. “The resources from this transaction will support advancing Prelude’s pipeline.”

About P-500

P-500 (previously PRT811) is a selective, brain-penetrant small molecule inhibitor of protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) that has the potential to provide clinical benefit for patients with advanced solid tumors, including high-grade glioma and uveal melanoma.

PRMT5 is an enzyme that adds methyl groups to proteins in cells using a molecule called S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) which regulates protein function and interactions. Several processes that support cancer cell growth and spread depend on PRMT5, making P-500 relevant not only to advanced high-grade glioma and uveal melanoma (in which objective responses to P-500 were observed in the Phase 1 clinical trial) but also to a number of other cancer indications. Preclinical studies have demonstrated PRMT5 inhibition can sensitize cancer cells to other treatments, expanding the application of P-500 to combination therapy in additional indications.

About Pathos

Pathos is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on re-engineering drug development, leveraging the power of AI technologies to bring precision medicines to market through partnership with biopharmaceutical companies. Pathos has raised $40 million to accelerate the development of precision medicines and to expand its platform, combining computational approaches across multimodal real-world data and patient-derived biological models. Additional information can be found at www.pathos.com.

contacts

Business Development: bd@pathos.com

Press Inquiries: press@pathos.com

Pathos AI Completes Acquisition of Rain Oncology

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:22:54 GMT

Rain Stockholders to Receive $1.16 Per Share in Cash Plus Contingent Value Rights

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Pathos AI, Inc. (www.pathos.com), today announced that it has, through its wholly owned subsidiary WK Merger Sub, Inc. (“Merger Sub”), successfully completed its tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of the common stock of Rain Oncology Inc. (Nasdaq: RAIN) (“Rain”) for $1.16 per share in cash plus one contingent value right per share (each, a “CVR”), which CVR shall represent the right to receive potential payments pursuant to the terms and subject to the conditions of the Contingent Value Rights Agreement, dated as of January 26, 2024, by and among Pathos, Merger Sub, Equiniti Trust Company, LLC, and Fortis Advisors LLC.

The tender offer expired as scheduled at one minute after 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on January 25, 2024. As of the expiration of the tender offer, a total of 28,031,182 shares of Rain common stock had been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn from the tender offer, representing approximately 77% of the outstanding shares of Rain common stock. The conditions to the tender offer were satisfied and Merger Sub has accepted for payment and will promptly pay for all validly tendered shares.

Following the closing of the tender offer, Merger Sub merged with and into Rain (the “Merger”) and all shares of Rain common stock that were not validly tendered and remained issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the Merger (other than shares held in the treasury of Rain or owned, directly or indirectly, by Parent or its subsidiaries, or by any stockholder of Rain who was entitled to and properly demanded appraisal of such shares pursuant to Delaware law) were cancelled and converted into the right to receive the same $1.16 per share in cash plus one CVR per share. As a result of the Merger, Rain became a wholly owned subsidiary of Pathos. Shares of Rain common stock have ceased trading on Nasdaq and Pathos intends promptly to cause such shares to be delisted.

About Rain Oncology Inc.

Rain Oncology Inc. is a precision oncology company developing therapies that target oncogenic drivers to genetically select patients it believes will most likely benefit. Rain’s product candidate, milademetan, is a small molecule, oral inhibitor of the p53-MDM2 complex that reactivates p53.

About Pathos AI, Inc.

Pathos AI, Inc. is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on re-engineering drug development. By leveraging the power of AI technologies, multimodal real-world data, and patient-derived biological models, Pathos brings precision medicines to market through partnership with biopharmaceutical companies. Additional information can be found at www.pathos.com.

Important Notices

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws, including, without limitation, statements regarding the payment and timing of payment of the offer consideration to former Rain common stockholders and the ability and timing of delisting of Rain’s common stock. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the risk that the timing of the payment or delisting may be delayed. The words “estimates,” “expects,” “continues,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “targets,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “potential,” “goal,” and “effort” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These statements are based on current plans, estimates and projections. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific. Rain cautions that a number of important factors, including those described in this communication, could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in any forward-looking statements. Rain cautions investors not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained in this communication represent Rain’s views only as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Rain disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements to reflect any change in expectations or in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

contacts

LifeSci Advisors

Daniel Ferry
+1.617.430.7576
daniel@lifesciadvisors.com or ir@rainoncology.com

Pathos Launches Precision Oncology Pipeline With License of First Phase I Program, a CBP/p300 Inhibitor

Tue, 23 May 2023 15:22:27 GMT

Pathos obtains worldwide rights from Novo Nordisk for the development of CBP/p300 inhibitor, FT-7051

Chicago – Pathos AI, Inc. (www.pathos.com), a biotechnology company focused on revolutionizing precision medicine in cancer by harnessing the power of machine learning to transform drug development, announced today that it has entered into a worldwide license agreement to develop FT-7051, a small molecule CBP/p300 inhibitor program from Novo Nordisk as Pathos’ first clinical-stage asset in its pipeline.

FT-7051 was developed by Forma Therapeutics, which was acquired by Novo Nordisk in 2022, and is currently in phase I development. FT-7051 (renamed P-300) was evaluated in prostate cancer and has potential for development in multiple tumor types. The molecule inhibits the CBP/p300 protein, which is involved in the activation of genes that promote cancer cell growth and proliferation.

The development of this molecule reflects Pathos’ commitment to precision medicine and biomarker-driven approaches in cancer treatment. “P-300 has shown promising phase I data and we are confident that leveraging our PathOS PlatformTM will enhance an optimized path toward a broader patient population that could benefit from this therapeutic option.” explained Ryan Fukushima, Pathos CEO. “We are thrilled about this licensing agreement with Novo Nordisk and accelerating the development for this CBP/p300 inhibitor program.”

The license will enable Pathos to continue the development of the drug and bring it to market as quickly and as safely as possible. Pathos has not yet shared specific plans for P-300 but will disclose more details during upcoming oncology conferences.

About P-300

P-300 is an oral, small molecule inhibitor that has the potential to provide clinical benefit for patients with advanced prostate cancer, either alone or in combination with other treatments. P-300 works by inhibiting CREBBP/EP300 (also known as CBP/p300), which are proteins that activate genes that promote cancer cell growth and proliferation. Inhibiting these proteins impacts the expression of key cancer drivers, including the androgen receptor (AR) and its variants, making P-300 relevant not only to advanced prostate cancer, but also to other cancer indications as well, either alone or in combination with other treatments.

About Pathos

Pathos is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on re-engineering drug development, leveraging the power of AI technologies to bring precision medicines to market through partnership with biopharmaceutical companies. Pathos has raised $40 million dollars to accelerate the development of precision medicines and to expand its platform, combining computational approaches across multimodal real-world data and patient-derived biological models. Additional information can be found at www.pathos.com

contacts

Business Development: bd@pathos.com

Press Inquiries: press@pathos.com

Re-engineering Drug Development for Precision Medicine

Mon, 22 May 2023 15:22:07 GMT

There’s no worse feeling than watching a loved one fight bravely through a cancer diagnosis and battle through treatments while hoping for a miracle or a little more time. Suddenly, your doctor tells you that there’s nothing more they can do, and that palliative care is the only option left. The crushing feeling of hopelessness sets in, and it’s a moment that sits with you forever. Sadly, this is an experience shared by far too many families around the world. I know this all too well because I was there with my own family. It’s a moment etched in my memory, a moment that has fueled my desire to make a difference.

This is why I am excited to introduce our new company called Pathos, which focuses on bringing the benefits of AI to drug development, as there are few spaces in the world more in need of technology advances. Cancer is a collection of hundreds of sub-diseases and can be best described by biological pathway activity accounting for the pathophysiology of patients. To best treat these diseases, we need to stratify patient populations based on pathways for new therapeutic options and harness the power of AI to re-imagine each step of the drug development process.

Approach to Drug Development for Precision Medicine

At Pathos, we believe that the standard drug development approach for precision medicine needs a full rebuild. With a success rate of only 16% in oncology1, incremental improvements over the past decade are not enough for patients in need. Instead of tweaks or enhancements, we’re focused on re-engineering the entire process of drug development for precision medicine, starting with positioning clinical stage assets for successful phase II results. With this approach, we intend to partner with biopharmaceutical companies, not compete with them.

Phase I trials are traditionally testing for safety and tolerability of a drug, resulting in many all-comers trial designs that generate underpowered signals for patient selection strategies for a future phase II. Designing these patient selection strategies requires accessing rich patient datasets that can address systems biology questions, so we no longer need to rely on synthetic datasets generated in a lab or outdated publications to evaluate biomarker-driven opportunities.

Thankfully the industry has changed dramatically since the human genome project over 20 years ago. I’ve seen this first-hand while building and scaling Tempus over the past 8 years. With the latest advancements in generating real-world multimodal data, computational biology, and machine learning techniques (like shown in the image below) we can now access thousands of patient datasets or hundreds of petabytes of real-world data like never before.

AI-driven Future Where No Patient is Left Behind

With real-world multimodal datasets at our fingertips, we’ve been building models of disease and uncovering patient selection strategies that target specific subpopulations based on biological pathways rather than tumor types classified by their organ of origin. However, building hypotheses in-silico isn’t enough. We’ve also acquired and integrated Known Medicine, a company that builds patient-specific 3D cell cultures & uses AI approaches to prospectively predict drug responses in patients. In doing so, we’re building a future where it is cost-effective to develop therapeutics for smaller populations to ensure no patient gets left behind. Developing drugs for these smaller populations doesn’t always make economic sense for companies but we’re fixated on solving the hard challenges to ensure these drugs can get to the patients that need them most.

Our platform is already being leveraged as we’ve licensed our first clinical-stage asset, P-300 (formerly known as FT-7051 from Novo Nordisk). P-300 was designed to inhibit CBP/p300 in advanced metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer. It has recently completed an initial phase I trial. Additional details about the agreement with Novo Nordisk can be found here.

Off to the Races

We’ve been fortunate to raise $40 million dollars with like-minded investors to change the status quo and apply AI approaches throughout the drug development continuum to double, or even triple, the current benchmarks of probability of success in drug development.

With an experienced team of ex-founders, drug developers, and scientists, we are simultaneously building our computational platform with reverse translational approaches and developing life-altering therapeutics for patients at unparalleled speed. We’ve got big aspirations and we are dedicated to attracting the brightest minds and the boldest hearts to join us on this mission, propelling us towards a brighter future for cancer patients everywhere.

For now, we’re heads down building the future of drug development for precision medicine. We want our results to speak for themselves and will share details as we make meaningful progress toward improving the lives of cancer patients. More to come soon!

1: Wong CH, Siah KW, Lo AW. Estimation of clinical trial success rates and related parameters. Biostatistics. 2019 Apr 1;20(2):273-286. doi: 10.1093/biostatistics/kxx069. Erratum in: Biostatistics. 2019 Apr 1;20(2):366. PMID: 29394327; PMCID: PMC6409418.