OpenAI announced the acquisition of the startup Orchestra Bio, which focuses on using AI for drug development programs. The Orchestra team and platform will be integrated into the Rosalind toolkit for biologists and chemists. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Orchestra startup develops AI agents that monitor drug development programs and help analyze how failures, such as production breakdowns, affect the entire process. The main task of specialists – to make the final decision, while AI analyzes various scenarios.
According to OpenAI, it takes up to 15 years to bring a new drug from the initial idea to approval in the US. Reducing development times allows new drugs to reach the market faster and gain financial benefits. However, the process of creating a new drug requires colossal investments: producing one approved drug can cost more than 2.6 billion dollars, and less than 10% of candidates undergoing human trials reach pharmacy shelves.
OpenAI did not specify the amount paid for Orchestra or the timeline for integrating the agents into the Rosalind platform. In April, Anthropic, a close competitor of OpenAI, acquired the startup Coefficient Bio for approximately 400 million dollars. OpenAI also launched the GPT-Rosalind model, specialized for biology and drug discovery, which is available only to verified enterprises in the US, such as Amgen and Moderna. Simultaneously, the Rosalind Workbench product was created, linking the model with scientific tools for analyzing results and planning experiments. The work of Orchestra will enable scientific teams to connect scientific results with the necessary solutions for creating new drugs.
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