Drug companies could soon be quicker and more accurate in getting promising products onto the market if one Philadelphia startup has anything to do with it, writes Tom Avril for The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

BioPhy, a local startup, uses artificial intelligence to predict clinical trial outcomes.

The startup recently secured $4.5 million in early-stage funding from numerous investment groups.

BioPhy’s tool is designed to help improve the efficiency of the drug development process. Drug companies can then utilize the tool to evaluate their overall portfolio and improve the trial designs of the drugs.

“We can work with a company to optimize what that protocol would look like in order to optimize the probability of success,” said BioPhy’s CEO Dave Latshaw II.

The model has an 80% prediction rate on more than 1,500 drug trials over the past 27 months. 

Chelsea Clinton and her investment firm, Metrodora Ventures, are one of the startup’s backers. 

BioPhy adds another layer into the expansion of AI into the healthcare field, and aims to evaluate both novel and established classes of drugs. 

Results are delivered in a transparent fashion so clients can see the data that went into the result.

“The system is not a black box. It’s explainable,” said Latshaw.

Read more about how BioPhy uses artificial intelligence at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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