Unseen Upside: Investments Beyond Their Returns S6:E3 AI & Biotech: Accelerating Breakthroughs in Medicine
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Nov 18, 2025 
Brandon White, co-founder of Axiom, discusses groundbreaking AI models that replace animal testing in drug development, making the process quicker and more humane. Stefan Strine from the Cleveland Clinic highlights their strategic investments in AI and quantum computing for healthcare innovation. Sunil Dhaliwal of Amplify Partners shares insights on the rise of computational biologists and how they drive AI integration in biotech. Together, they explore the ethical implications and future potential of AI in transforming medicine and improving patient outcomes.
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AI Can Increase Drug Success Rates
- Drug development is slow, expensive, and has very low success rates, often taking over a decade and >$1B before clinical trials.
- AI can accelerate discovery and increase the number of effective therapies reaching patients by improving early decision-making.
From Cancer ML To Axiom's Mission
- Brandon White described building an early cancer-detection ML model that worked and showed machine learning could learn biology beyond human pattern recognition.
- That experience led him from ML at Uber to cofounding Axiom to apply AI to drug toxicity.
Animal Tests Mislead Drug Safety
- Animal models poorly predict human safety: roughly 90% of drugs safe in animals fail in humans.
- This mismatch drives high costs, delays, and ethical concerns in drug development.