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Mithrl, an AI infrastructure company for biopharma, raised a $20 million Series A, CEO Vivek Adarsh tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Pharma AI spending is broadening beyond individual tools to systems designed to work across R&D functions.

How it works: Mithrl's software integrates with a company's existing systems, combining its biomedical knowledge with a company's scientific data and third-party AI models.

"Today we're an AI infrastructure company, and that's because of the industry we work in," Adarsh says. 

"Everybody's science is a little different, so we have to be able to cater to every single pharma organization in a way that scales with them."

Follow the money: Obvious Ventures led the Series A, with participation from Headline and AGI House.

Adarsh says the $20 million gives the San Francisco-based company roughly 24 to 28 months of runway.

The big picture: Biopharma R&D is getting more expensive, with about 13% of Phase I assets succeeding and the cost per successful new molecular entity rising from about $2.5 billion in 2016 to $4 billion today, according to McKinsey.

What they're saying: "The bottleneck in drug discovery isn't generating more hypotheses, but knowing which ones are defensible enough to advance," Adarsh says.

What's next: The financing will go toward product and engineering, go-to-market hiring and deployment.

Exclusive: Mithrl raises $20M Series A for biopharma AI infrastructure

Mithrl is betting drugmakers need AI infrastructure that can work across their existing scientific systems and data.

Illustration of a robot handing a scalpel to a surgeon.

Mithrl, an AI infrastructure company for biopharma, raised a $20 million Series A, CEO Vivek Adarsh tells Axios exclusively.Why it matters: Pharma AI spending is <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="broadening" data-vars-click-url="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/from-linear-gates-to-learning-loops-rewiring-biopharma-r-and-d-with-ai" data-vars-content-id="d5d506d2-dc07-4aa1-bcbc-f93325d94e91" data-vars-headline="Exclusive: Mithrl raises $20M Series A for biopharma AI infrastructure" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/from-linear-gates-to-learning-loops-rewiring-biopharma-r-and-d-with-ai" target="_blank">broadening</a> beyond individual tools to systems designed to work across R&amp;D functions.

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Exclusive: Mithrl raises $20M Series A for biopharma AI infrastructure

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