Polish biotech startup Ingenix has secured €9 million in seed funding to develop a groundbreaking AI platform that simulates clinical drug trials, potentially transforming pharmaceutical research and development processes. The company's proprietary technology aims to address the industry's notoriously high failure rates and accelerate drug development timelines.
Founded in 2023 by Piotr Surma and Adam Dancewicz, Ingenix is developing a multimodal and multiscale generative AI co-pilot that can simulate clinical trials with unprecedented granularity and accuracy. The funding round was led by Inovo.vc, with participation from OTB Ventures and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The Clinical Trial Challenge
The pharmaceutical industry invests approximately $50 billion annually in clinical trials, yet faces a daunting 90% failure rate for pilot drugs seeking regulatory approval. This high failure rate translates to extended development timelines, increased costs, and delayed patient access to potentially life-saving treatments.
Traditional clinical trials are complex, time-consuming processes that involve multiple phases of human testing. The unpredictability of human biological responses to new compounds remains one of the industry's most significant challenges.
"The intricacies of human biology make the development of any AI technology in the pharmaceutical industry incredibly complex. However, it is possible," said Piotr Surma, co-founder and CEO of Ingenix. "What Adam, myself and the team are developing could have a seismic impact not just on the way clinical trials are conducted, but on the entire sector, as it will make the drug development process predictable."
A Multiscale Approach to Trial Simulation
Ingenix's platform takes a comprehensive approach to clinical trial simulation, analyzing data across multiple biological scales. Starting at the molecular level, the system progresses through cellular, tissue, and organism levels, ultimately reaching population-level analysis. This multiscale methodology enables the platform to provide detailed predictions of clinical endpoint values and potential adverse events for a wide variety of drug candidates.
The technology could significantly reduce development timelines while maintaining rigorous quality standards, ultimately benefiting patients through faster access to new therapies.
Proven Leadership in AI Development
The founding team brings substantial expertise in AI development and commercialization. Prior to launching Ingenix, Surma and Dancewicz founded Applica, an AI startup specializing in proprietary multimodal large language models (LLMs). Applica was successfully acquired by Snowflake in 2022, demonstrating the team's ability to build and scale sophisticated AI technologies.
This track record was a key factor in securing investor confidence. Krzysztof Przybylak, Principal at lead investor Inovo.vc, emphasized the importance of the team's capabilities: "Ingenix is tackling a research challenge that is both ambitious and complex. At this stage of investment, the only thing that truly matters is the team. Very few teams worldwide are capable of addressing this problem, but after nearly a year of collaboration with Piotr and his team, we had no doubt that Ingenix is one of them—and that we should lead this round."
Industry's 'GPT Moment'
Surma believes the pharmaceutical industry is ready for transformative AI innovation, similar to what ChatGPT has done for natural language processing. "The pharmaceutical industry has long been awaiting its 'GPT moment' and, as shown time and time again, the AI leaders of tomorrow can appear anywhere in the world so long as they are driven by intellect, creativity and a real-world focus," he stated.
Wojtek Walniczek, Partner at OTB Ventures, expressed similar optimism about the technology's potential: "At OTB Ventures, we are committed to supporting groundbreaking technologies that have the potential to revolutionize industries. Ingenix's multi-modal and multiscale approach to AI-driven clinical trial simulation stands to significantly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of drug development, changing the game for the pharmaceutical sector."
Funding Allocation and Business Model
The €9 million seed funding will support further development of Ingenix's proprietary AI platform, team expansion, and enhancement of capabilities to handle increasingly complex clinical trial simulations. The company operates on a B2B SaaS/AI-as-a-Service business model, targeting pharmaceutical and biotech companies involved in drug development.
As the global pharmaceutical R&D market continues to grow, Ingenix is positioning itself at the intersection of artificial intelligence and clinical research, potentially offering a solution to one of the industry's most persistent challenges: making drug development more predictable, efficient, and successful.
