CHEMISTRY

Edammo’s AI technology outperforms Google’s

Verseon International Corporation has acquired Edammo, Inc. Verseon has spent two decades pioneering scientific advances in molecular physics, chemistry, biology, and AI to create the world’s most advanced drug-discovery platform. The acquisition of Edammo by Verseon moves the company’s valuation to over $2 billion USD.

This platform systematically produces entire families of novel drug candidates that cannot be found by any other current method—candidates whose uniquely desirable therapeutic profiles promise to change the standard of care for every disease they address. The company now has seven programs for conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

When developing completely novel drugs, the available dataset is often small and sparse. And big-data-dependent AI can’t solve small-data problems easily. Verseon has developed its own specialized AI tools internally to handle these situations.

The company has also monitored external developments and found that Edammo’s Extreme AutoML technology performs particularly well in a variety of life-sciences tasks. Edammo’s novel approach to AI is superior to other current technologies for utilizing small datasets and has a significantly lower error rate than industry-benchmark Google AutoML.

Announcing the acquisition, Verseon Co-founder and CEO Adityo Prakash said: “As we continue to expand Verseon’s capabilities through both in-house development and strategic acquisitions, Edammo’s AI technology will be an excellent addition to our platform.”

Edammo CEO Ed Ratner added, “We are pleased that Verseon determined our Extreme AutoML will enhance the machine-learning components of Verseon’s platform. While it’s useful in many different settings, applying Edammo’s technology to help develop critical new medicines is a highly rewarding opportunity to improve billions of lives around the world.”