Pathos AI Inc., a startup using artificial intelligence to develop new oncology drugs, today announced that it has raised $365 million in a late-stage funding.

The company didn’t disclose the investors in the Series D round. According to FierceBiotech, the raise included the participation of both new and existing Pathos backers. The company, which is now worth $1.6 billion, previously raised funding from NEA, General Atlantic and other institutional investors.

Pathos has developed a platform called PathOS that promises to ease the work of pharmaceutical scientists. According to Pathos, the software hosts petabytes of oncology and genomic data. Researchers can analyze that data to identify ways of improving clinical trials for new drugs.

Pathos is currently running trials for two cancer drugs licensed from Novo Nordisk AS and Prelude Therapeutics Inc. The company will use its newly raised funding round to finance its clinical studies. Additionally, part of the capital will go toward developing what Pathos describes as the largest AI foundation model for oncology research. 

The company’s AI model is designed to process multimodal clinical, molecular and imaging data. It promises to help drug makers design more effective clinical trials. Pathos says that the algorithm will also simplify a number of other tasks.

Many oncology research initiatives focus on cancer biomarkers, which are materials and biological processes associated with cancer. Oncologists analyze them to diagnose cancer and measure treatment effectiveness. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies often study biomarkers during the drug development process. Pathos says that its AI model will enable researchers to discover new biomarkers more efficiently. 

In April, the company partnered with AstraZeneca plc and healthcare technology company Tempus AI Inc. to support its AI development efforts. Tempus, which went public last year in a $410 million offering, will supply anonymized oncology data to help train the model. Pathos stated that the collaboration includes $200 million worth of data licensing and model development agreements. 

“Pathos was founded to transform drug development by harnessing the full potential of multimodal data and AI,” said Chief Executive Iker Huerga. “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.”

Other companies are also developing AI models optimized for medical research. In March, Google LLC released TxGemma, a series of language models designed to help researchers more quickly develop new drugs. Earlier, Microsoft Corp. introduced an algorithm called TamGen that automates some of the work involved in discovering molecules with therapeutic applications. 

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