Announcing Our Investment in VeriSIM Life
When you meet a founder whose mission is to save human lives by reducing inaccurate animal testing in preclinical drug development by creating personalized clinical trials, it’s hard to say no. CEO Jo Varshney is a Veterinarian by trade, with a PhD in Comparative Oncology and Genomics & CS from University of Minnesota. Before VeriSIM Life, Jo spent time at UCSF and Genentech and upon completing Village Global’s Network Catalyst, has raised from top investors including, Stage, Amplify Partners, and TenOneTen.
VeriSIM Life operates in the $35B drug discovery & development market which is projected to grow to over $70B by 2025. Her initial work targets the $10B+ spent on pre-clinical research and the inefficiency in testing potential drugs for toxicity in animals before human trials can occur.
On average, a new drug takes 10 years to enter the market and the animal testing required to validate drug safety and toxicity is uneconomical, inaccurate and inhumane.
According to the FDA, only 8% of drugs that have passed animal testing eventually get to market, which means companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars on human clinical trials with flawed models that could have been mitigated with more accurate information in preclinical R&D.
In an attempt to solve this problem, Jo and her team comprised of leading PhD scientists and team members from Genentech, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and NASA with backgrounds in veterinary medicine, pharmacology, biophysics and AI have built comprehensive AI enabled computer models that simulate animal and human biological systems which more accurately reflect the interaction of a drug or combination of drugs in real animal and human systems.
Furthermore, no animals, or people are harmed in the process improving efficacy and ethical standards in drug development. VeriSIM Life has continued to excel by creatively integrating their own patented data sets which include specific genetic traits, gender, race, and physiological data. We think this is just the beginning.
Here’s a quote from Jo about working with Village:
“Village Global introduced me to everyone in my $1.5M round, full-stop, including two key advisors, one very high up at Genentech. They truly implemented a personalized program for VeriSIM Life.”
— Jo Varshney, PhD, Co-founder, VeriSIM Life
The VeriSIM Life team is rapidly growing and looking for additional experts in simulation & modeling as well as AI who want to solve a challenging healthcare problem and transform the preclinical drug development process. If this sounds like you, or someone you know, please contact Jo at: info@verisimlife.com
VeriSIM Life was initially introduced to Village Global by the On Deck Network, and we introduced her to advisors Jared Seehafer, CEO of Enzyme, and Alicyn Campbell, at Genentech. We’re thrilled to support VeriSIM Life’s mission, growth and team.