Unlearn’s Series C funding round led by Altimeter Capital to create digital copies of clinical trial participants
Unlearn, a company specializing in artificial intelligence techniques, particularly in creating digital replicas of clinical trial participants to enable smaller and faster studies, has announced securing a $50 million Series C funding round led by Altimeter Capital, along with existing investors Radical Ventures, Wittington Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Epic Ventures, and Necessary Venture Capital.
This funding round has been secured to support the company’s mission of advancing AI to eliminate trial and error in medicine by investing in its employees, data, engineering capabilities, and long-term research and development initiatives.
Founded in 2017 as an AI research company, Unlearn has always been at the forefront of developing innovative AI-based solutions for clinical trials. Now, after seven years and raising over $130 million, Unlearn’s technology is addressing key challenges in clinical research, such as long timelines, slow enrollment, and patient reluctance to participate due to fear of receiving a placebo.
Unlearn’s AI models generate individual digital twins for each trial participant before they are randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. These digital twins allow participants to provide predictions of their health outcomes under the influence of placebos, regardless of their actual status.
Digital twins enable clinical trials to be conducted with high power using smaller control groups, allowing more patients to receive experimental treatment.
Clinical trials with digital twins reduce the time it takes to bring new drugs and treatments to market, ultimately opening the door to improving health outcomes for everyone.
Dr. Charles Fisher, founder and CEO of Unlearn, said, “Pharmaceutical companies spend over $100 billion annually on clinical research, yet the industry remains skeptical of new technologies that have the potential to truly transform research.”
Pauline Yang, partner at Altimeter Capital, commented, “Unlearn provides powerful AI models to help make clinical research more streamlined and efficient.”
It is worth noting that Unlearn has embarked on partnerships with pharmaceutical sponsors, biotech companies, and academic institutions to streamline and enhance clinical trials, enabling researchers to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new treatments more quickly and accurately.
