VeriSIM Life

VeriSIM Life, founded in 2017 by Dr. Jo Varshney, operates at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biotechnology, aiming to de-risk and accelerate the drug development process. Dr. Varshney, who serves as the CEO, brings a multidisciplinary background to the company, with a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and a Ph.D. in comparative oncology and genomics. Her journey, which began in India with early exposure to pharmacology, fueled a desire to find an alternative to animal testing, leading to the creation of VeriSIM Life. The company was started by Dr. Varshney as a solo founder and has since secured significant funding, including a $15 million Series A round in January 2022, led by Morpheus Ventures, bringing its total raised capital to over $21 million from investors like Intel Capital, Debiopharm Innovation Fund, and OCA Ventures.

The company's core offering is its proprietary BIOiSIM® platform, a 'virtual drug development engine' that uses AI and machine learning to simulate how a drug compound will behave in the human body. This biosimulation technology addresses the high failure rate of drugs in clinical trials—where over 90% of candidates that pass animal testing fail—by providing early and accurate predictions on a drug's viability. The platform integrates biological insights with AI to generate a 'Translational Index' score, akin to a credit score, which ranks drug candidates on their potential efficacy and helps researchers make more informed decisions. This allows for the reduction of time, cost, and reliance on animal testing in the preclinical phase.

VeriSIM Life serves a client base of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as academic and research institutions, through a hybrid business model that combines a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform with professional services and collaborative partnerships. Clients can use the BIOiSIM® platform to test thousands of potential drug candidates digitally, identifying the most promising ones before committing to expensive and lengthy lab experiments. The company also engages in risk-sharing collaborations to co-develop new drugs and has a wholly-owned subsidiary, PulmoSIM Therapeutics, which uses the BIOiSIM® technology to develop treatments for rare respiratory diseases. One of its assets, PT001, received FDA orphan drug designation after only two years of development, showcasing the platform's efficiency.

Keywords: drug development, artificial intelligence, biosimulation, machine learning, preclinical development, translational medicine, computational biology, pharmaceutical technology, drug discovery, virtual clinical trials, AI in healthcare, de-risking R&D, BIOiSIM, Jo Varshney, animal testing alternatives, predictive analytics, in silico modeling, pharmacokinetics, drug efficacy, personalized medicine, biotech innovation, SaaS, orphan drugs, regulatory technology, clinical success prediction