Xaira Launches With $1bn-Plus And End-To-End AI Strategy

Xaira Therapeutics is an ambitious artificial intelligence endeavor, with founding investors ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Capital aiming to assemble all components of an AI-powered drug discovery and development operation under one roof – everything from target identification and antibody design to clinical trial planning and patient selection. The start-up also aims to advance its first drug candidates toward the clinic while continuing to build out its datasets and technical capabilities, which is why it launched with ambitious funding – more than $1bn.

ARCH and Foresite’s company-building arm Foresite Labs incubated Xaira with the idea that the start-up would have everything it needed in-house, including experts in data generation, AI technology and drug development, Foresite Labs CEO and Foresite Capital managing director Vikram Bijaj explained in an interview with Scrip. ARCH and Foresite recruited former Genentech Inc