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Radical Numerics, an AI research lab for biological data, raised a $50 million seed round, CEO Eric Nguyen tells Axios.

The big picture: Pharma giants are signing AI partnerships and scaling internal tools to support R&D.

Follow the money: Emergence Capital led the round, and Obvious Ventures, Triatomic Capital, Factory and First Spark Ventures joined.

How it works: The San Francisco-based company trains models directly on raw biological data, like DNA, RNA, proteins and other molecular signals, to reason across diagnostics, biological design and biosecurity.

"We've created a tool that can detect AI-generated viruses," Nguyen says. "It's a new generation of emerging threats."

Zoom in: Nguyen says Radical Numeric's early partnerships include a commercial engagement with a U.S. national lab and a separate cancer diagnostics collaboration.

Between the lines: Last year, VCs invested $3.2 billion across 135 AI drug development startups.

Since 2019, they've invested more than $17 billion in AI drug discovery, per PitchBook.

Yes, but: AI-developed drugs have yet to reach large-scale clinical trials.

Catch up quick: AI in biotech is shifting toward core R&D, as drugmakers look to shorten discovery and development timelines.

Novo Nordisk, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb have all signed recent AI partnerships with OpenAI, Google Cloud and Faro, respectively.

OpenAI introduced GPT-Rosalind, a life sciences reasoning model designed to support biology and drug discovery.

What we're watching: Radical plans to release several flagship models this year as it looks to prove that biological foundation models can work across real-world applications, Nguyen says.

Radical Numerics raises $50M seed for biological AI models

Pharma companies keep pushing AI into drug R&D.

Illustration of a price tag on a DNA strand.

Radical Numerics, an AI research lab for biological data, raised a $50 million seed round, CEO Eric Nguyen tells Axios.The big picture: Pharma giants are <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="signing" data-vars-click-url="https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/drug-development-ma-big-pharmas-showcase-measurable-impact-ai" data-vars-content-id="8556704d-4c4b-42ef-b983-64d86d2a87ee" data-vars-headline="Radical Numerics raises $50M seed for biological AI models" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/drug-development-ma-big-pharmas-showcase-measurable-impact-ai" target="_blank">signing</a> AI partnerships and scaling internal tools to support R&amp;D.

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Radical Numerics raises $50M seed for biological AI models

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