Avicenna Biosciences

The discovery, design, and testing of new drug is a high-risk, low-yield science, in part because so many candidate drugs turn out to be toxic. Avicenna has built a machine-learning-driven medical chemistry platform that screens candidate molecules to find those with ideal drug-like properties, making lead opti­miza­tion faster, cheaper, and more successful. Using the platform, the company discovered a new Rho kinase (ROCK) inhibitor that could potentially improve on existing treatments for neurode­gen­er­a­tive disease. Less than a year after the program’s kickoff, the company has already initiated Inves­ti­ga­tional New Drug (IND)-enabling studies.