Novo Nordisk is paying Valo Health $60 million up front to gain three preclinical cardiovascular disease programs. Milestone payments for those programs and others covered under the artificial intelligence drug discovery pact could reach up to $2.7 billion.

Specific targets were not disclosed, but Merck KGaA is betting the artificial intelligence technologies of Exscientia and BenevolentAI will discover into new drugs for cancer, neurology, and immunology.

By revealing how tumors interact with immune cells, Noetik aims to identify new targets for new cancer drugs. The startup and its artificial intelligence-driven platform are supported by $14 million in seed financing.

Rapport Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech that was founded last year, raised $150 million in Series B financing, bringing its total funding to date to $250 million. The company’s platform leverages receptor-associated proteins to create neurology drugs that have more focused activity in the brain, going after disease-driving circuits and cell types.

Pfizer and Flagship Pioneering are partnering in a drug research alliance leveraging the capabilities of the more than 40 biotech startups in the venture capital firm’s portfolio. The new partners aim to develop drugs for unmet needs, including those in broad patient populations.

Nvidia’s investment isn’t just working capital for Recursion Pharmaceuticals’ technology-driven drug discovery research. Recursion says it will get more computing power as well as the possibility of joining forces with Nvidia in research.

Scientists at Empress Therapeutics say molecules that co-evolved with humans over millennia are a promising source of new drugs. With its AI-driven technology platform, the Flagship Pioneering-founded startup finds them.

Although there is uncertainty and risk, the implementation of AI with the right compliance framework and infrastructure offers an exciting opportunity to transform healthcare into a new frontier with improved patient outcomes and increased efficiency.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals is acquiring two Canada-based artificial intelligence startups, Cyclica and Valence. The “biology-first company” says both deals build up its capability to apply AI to the chemistry side of drug discovery.

Ampersand Biomedicines emerged from stealth with technology for site-specific drug delivery that avoids toxic effects throughout the body. The Flagship Pioneering-founded startup is backed by $50 million in financing.

Despite challenging financial market conditions, clinical-stage Structure Therapeutics was able to upsize its IPO. Much of the new cash will support its lead program, an oral small molecule that could weigh in on the diabetes and obesity indications currently dominated by blockbuster injectable medicines.

Atomic AI combines artificial intelligence analysis with wet lab experiments to discover small molecules capable of drugging RNA. The startup, based on technology initially developed at Stanford, is backed by a $35 million Series A round of financing.

A collaboration between Nvidia and startup Evozyne was able to produce novel versions of a human protein never before seen in nature but with enhanced function and the same safety as native protein. The research lays the groundwork for potential new therapies for a rare inherited disorder.

Versant Ventures-backed Belharra Therapeutics has launched with $130 million in funding and a partnership with Roche subsidiary Genentech. The startup’s technology analyzes proteins in the context of the entire cell, enabling it to discover molecules that bind to targets previously deemed undruggable.

FogPharma is preclinical, but not for long. The biotech’s Series D financing round lays the groundwork to bring its lead program into the clinic in mid-2023, as well as support development of the rest of its pipeline of peptide drugs.

Risk-based quality management is a data monitoring approach that accelerates the drug development pathway without compromising on safety – and one that is enhanced by the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence.

GSK is making greater use of artificial intelligence and computational techniques as part of its drug discovery efforts. Speaking during the HLTH conference in Las Vegas, executive Mike Montello likened his company’s techniques to the efforts to study and analyze images from outer space.

Juvena Therapeutics is developing secreted protein drugs built on new knowledge gleaned from proprietary technology that maps these proteins and the tissues in the body where they offer a regenerative effect. The startup’s lead program is in development for the muscle disorder myotonic dystrophy type 1.

Odyssey Therapeutics raised $168 million in Series B financing, the largest round of funding for a biotech startup this week. Companies developing new technologies in genetic diseases, cancer, and drug research are represented also represented in this week’s recap of life science financings.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are key to 3T Biosciences’ approach to identifying novel drug targets and engineering better, safer cancer immunotherapies. The Stanford spinout is now out of stealth with a $40 million Series A financing and a plan to reach the clinic within two years.

Bristol Myers Squibb’s drug R&D includes targeted protein degradation, an approach that can require proteins that don’t normally interact to find a way to stick together. BMS is turning to startup A-Alpha Bio to discover “molecular glues” that can accomplish the task.

Merck is paying $25 million to kick off a research partnership with Cerevance, a startup that analyzes donor brain tissue to find novel targets for new neurological disorder drugs. While Cerevance’s lead program is a Parkinson’s disease drug, Merck is wants to see if the startup’s technology can help it discover and develop new Alzheimer’s disease drugs.

Decentralized clinical trials, drug discovery technologies, and partnering strategies between big pharma and startups were among the topics covered during INVEST PharmaTech, a virtual event hosted this week by MedCity News.

Use of computational software in drug research is growing, and some big tech companies are angling for a piece of this market. Cadence Design Systems is entering the life sciences sector through the $500 million acquisition of OpenEye Scientific, a company that provides computational drug design software to the pharmaceutical industry.

Technological advances are moving drug discovery work to computers, but experimental medicines still must be tested in animals. Startup Manifold Bio is developing technology that enables the testing of hundreds of molecules in a single mouse, bringing drug hunters valuable in vivo data much earlier in the drug discovery process.

ProFound Therapeutics emerged from stealth with technology that it claims has discovered tens of thousands of previously undiscovered proteins—many of them promising new drug targets. The Flagship Pioneering-founded startup is backed by $75 million to support its drug R&D along with plans to partner with large pharmaceutical companies.

UK-based OMass Therapeutics is leaning on a proprietary form of native mass spectrometry to help develop small-molecule drugs for rare diseases.

Octant Bio’s synthetic biology approach to drug discovery is making progress, and the preclinical biotech has raised $80 million in Series B financing to continue the journey. The company added Bristol Myers Squibb as an investor and collaborator in the search for new immunology drugs.

OmniAb, the antibody division of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, is set to go public through a SPAC merger that will infuse the business with up to $266 million. The deal comes as traditional IPOs have mostly ground to a halt due to uncertain market conditions, but Ligand is making a longer-term bet on growing demand for antibody drug discovery services.

Single-cell analysis biotech Celsius Therapeutics has raised $83 million to advance its pipeline of drugs for autoimmune disorders and cancer. The startup’s lead autoimmune program, a TREM1-blocking antibody for inflammatory bowel disease, is expected to begin human testing in early 2023.