Intrepid Labs, a biotechnology company that is transforming drug formulation development through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, emerged from stealth mode to advance therapeutics development through effective formulations that improve clinical performance.
The company has secured several industry partners and recently closed a $7 million seed round led by AVANT BIO. This followed an unannounced $4 million pre-seed round led by Radical Ventures, with participation from Propagator Ventures.
Formulation is a significant step in drug development. And effective formulations not only improve therapeutic efficacy, but also mitigate adverse effects, enhancing overall patient safety, while improving drug development success rates.
The common approach to formulation design is slow and expensive. And it starts with benchmarks from existing formulations and then proceeds, one parameter at a time, through a trial-and-error exercise. So companies often settle for suboptimal formulations that fail to maximize a drug’s performance, leaving most of the design space untapped.
Valiant Platform: Intrepid Labs is transforming drug formulation with its Valiant platform, which is a modular and AI-driven robotic lab that rapidly explores the full formulation design space. With an active pharmaceutical ingredient and a target product profile, Valiant selects, prepares, and analyzes formulations through semi- and fully autonomous workflows, refining multiple parameters in parallel with expert oversight. What once took months can now be achieved in days, delivering optimized formulations through a comprehensive, data-driven process.
Since its founding in 2023, Intrepid Labs has forged partnerships with multiple drug developers, including some of the largest global pharmaceutical companies, and contract research organizations, and small and mid-sized biotechs. And industry partners use the Valiant platform to identify optimized formulations and accelerate drug development. At the same time, Intrepid Labs is developing its own proprietary oral and long-acting injectable delivery technologies for small molecules and biologics that are available for licensing.
What the funding will be used for: The proceeds from these financings will expand Intrepid Labs’ team, accelerate the development of its proprietary delivery technologies, and scale commercial operations to keep pace with customer demand.
KEY QUOTES:
“It is apparent that traditional approaches to drug formulation aren’t working. Pharma companies are relying on legacy approaches that fail to deliver the best possible formulations into the clinic. I believe this contributes to the high rate of failure during clinical development. Intrepid Labs is addressing this overlooked bottleneck in drug development with its transformative approach that unlocks a faster, more precise path to improve the quality of therapeutics. We’re going to change the way the industry thinks about drug formulation.”
Christine Allen, co-founder and chief executive officer of Intrepid Labs
“Intrepid Labs is unlocking a new era in drug formulation, in which delivery format, dosing frequency, and patient experience can be intentionally designed from day one. By using AI and robotics to screen vast formulation possibilities, its Valiant platform enables more cost-effective therapies and better outcomes for patients.”
Sebastien Latapie, partner at AVANT BIO
