The Wednesday Pharma R&D
Isomorphic Labs says its AI drug design engine works, and its first human trials are due by year-end
Isomorphic Labs, the Google DeepMind spin-out, raised $2.1 billion in May and is reportedly in talks for a much larger round. Its president says all its programs are still preclinical.
By Matteo Favilli, 2026-11-11
In short
Isomorphic Labs uses AI models to design small-molecule medicines on a computer. Its president says the company's programs are deep in preclinical development, and the company has said it expects its first clinical trials by the end of 2026. Its programs have not reached human trials yet.12
Why it matters
Isomorphic Labs is a drug-discovery company spun out of Google DeepMind that remains under Alphabet's control. Its president, Max Jaderberg, said at Bloomberg Tech in London on 2 November that AI will eventually design every drug.1
He put the failure rate for medicines entering human trials at roughly 90%, because candidates can prove toxic or fail to work as researchers expected. His argument is that AI can improve those odds by helping scientists understand and engineer molecules more precisely before they are tested in patients.1
How it works
Isomorphic's technology is an AI drug design engine called IsoDDE. The company describes it as a unified engine that links structural biology prediction, meaning predicting the three-dimensional shape of biological molecules and how they interact, with the practical work of finding drug candidates.2
Jaderberg described two uses of AI. Reasoning models help researchers generate scientific hypotheses. Simulation models approximate physical processes, so researchers can test ideas on a computer before synthesizing a molecule and testing it in the lab.1
The business has two parts. Isomorphic works with Eli Lilly, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson, whose biological ideas it turns into molecules, and those deals can bring upfront payments, milestone payments and royalties. It also funds its own programs, which focus on oncology, immunology and inflammation.1
What they found
The claims so far come from the company itself. In May, Isomorphic announced a $2.1 billion Series B led by Thrive Capital, with Alphabet, GV, MGX, Temasek, CapitalG and the UK Sovereign AI Fund taking part.23
In the announcement, Jaderberg said the engine has proven itself across the company's internal programs by hitting key milestones and identifying viable candidates with unprecedented speed.2
Jaderberg described the programs as "deep in pre-clinical development", the stage where molecules are designed and tested in cells and animal models before human trials. At Davos on 20 January, Isomorphic's chief executive Demis Hassabis said the company expected its first clinical trials by the end of 2026, as Reuters reported.1
On 4 November, Bloomberg reported that Isomorphic was in talks to raise roughly $5 billion at a valuation of about $50 billion. The financing remained under negotiation, with terms subject to change.1
Matteo's take
In practice, Isomorphic has money, large pharma partners and a design engine it describes as working. What it has not shown yet is a molecule in a person. A first-in-human trial, expected by the end of the year according to Hassabis, is the first test of whether molecules designed this way behave in patients as the models predict.
The caveats are plain. The statements about the engine come from company executives and a company press release, and the interview coverage reports a prediction about the future of drug design. The pipeline is preclinical, so any data behind it comes from cells and animals at most. The funding figures, including the $5 billion in talks, are reports about a deal that was not final.
Jaderberg himself acknowledged that progress in biology depends on real-world experiments and laboratory time. The detail to watch is the year-end target: a trial registration or an announcement of a first patient dosed would give the 90% failure rate he cited a first data point from this company.
Sources
Drafted with AI from the sources below.
- Isomorphic Labs president says all drugs will be AI-designed as first trials near a year-end target, R&D World
- Isomorphic Labs Raises $2.1 Billion to Expand AI-Driven Drug Discovery Platform, BioPharm International
- Isomorphic Labs announces Series B investment round, Isomorphic Labs
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