Article # 5 AI and Drug Development: From Discovery to Delivery

Powering the Next Generation of AI‑Enabled Drug Development in the B.C. Life Sciences Sector

“British Columbia has become one of the world’s most exciting places to build a life sciences company. The depth of talent, the strength of its institutions, and the quality of its funding programs have been instrumental in helping us develop a technology that can change how medicines are discovered. Enki is a product of that ecosystem — and we’re proud to be part of what BC is building.” – Handol Kim, CEO & Co-founder, Variational AI

British Columbia is a globally competitive life sciences hub where artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a key role in accelerating the discovery, design, and delivery of new therapies. This progress is driven by a nexus of B.C.-based companies utilizing proprietary platforms, unique academic-industry partnerships, and AI-assisted ecosystem enablers.

AI at the Centre of Discovery and Development

Leading AI-native or AI-assisted companies driving the drug discovery – delivery pipeline include Variational AI; Redwood AI; Gandeeva Therapeutics; and Azor Biotech.

Founded in 2019, the multidisciplinary team at Variational AI developed the Enki™ platform — a generative chemistry model that rapidly designs and optimizes small-molecule therapeutic candidates which meet potency, selectivity, ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion – compound processing), and toxicity profiles. With funding from DIGITAL in 2021, the company collaborated with the University of British Columbia (UBC) and adMare BioInnovations to use Enki™ to discover new COVID-19 therapeutics. Variational AI has recently entered into a collaborative agreement with Merck that is valued at US $349 million.

Redwood AI has developed a proprietary AI-powered chemistry platform that integrates chemical data with cost, safety and scalability constraints to generate “synthesis intelligence”, and is designed to help pharma and biotech teams shorten drug development cycles and reduce risk at each stage from early discovery through scale-up. Redwood collaborated with Onco-Innovations to help the latter company accelerate development of its cancer-targeting compounds. Redwood AI recently secured a listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE).

A stand-out example of a biotech company utilizing AI in drug design is Gandeeva Therapeutics. A UBC spin-off, the company describes itself as “harnessing the power of AI and cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to advance precision drug design.” The company announced a research collaboration with Moderna, in 2023, to apply cryo‑EM and AI to protein surface structure at atomic resolution and is supporting a number of biotech and pharma partners with its technology. Gandeeva previously raised a US$40M Series A round, led by global investors Lux Capital and Leaps by Bayer.

Azor Biotek uses AI trained with clinically relevant advanced imaging and multiomic data to design effective drugs faster and at lower cost. Its platform integrates automated high-throughput in vivo imaging and proteomic imaging with human‑relevant biological models, generating the kind of data that typically only emerges in late‑stage drug development. By learning from tens of thousands of experiments each week, using transparent zebrafish models, Azor’s AI continuously improves its ability to identify drug candidates with a higher likelihood of success earlier in the development process. The automated efficacy platform emerged as a method to screen RNA-targeted drugs, and Azor is currently raising funds to bring its lead microRNA-targeted glioblastoma therapeutic candidate to clinical trial.

These companies form the nucleus of a growing AI-enabled drug development cluster, strengthening British Columbia’s global competitiveness in life sciences.

Academic AI Engines and Industry Partnerships Powering B.C.’s Biotech Pipeline

B.C.’s AI leadership is driven by university-led foundational research working in partnership with industry, translating applied AI into capabilities that strengthen the biotech pipeline. CGFlow, developed at Simon Fraser University (SFU), is an AI-native generative framework that simultaneously designs 3D molecular structures and synthetic pathways. By jointly optimizing structure and synthesis, the framework addresses a major drug-discovery bottleneck — synthesizability — and positions B.C. as a contributor to core AI‑drug design research.

Additionally, B.C. is home to the UBC led Canada Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub (CIEBH), which focuses on collaborations between industry and academia. Two featured initiatives include PROGENITER and AVENGER. PROGENITER brings together researchers from the BC Institute of Technology (BCIT), SFU, and UBC, and industry partners and advisors, including Gandeeva Therapeutics, Amgen BC, AbCellera, and Zymeworks to use AI-driven antibody design to enable a 100-day national biodefense response capability. Complementing this effort, CIEBH’s AVENGER platform focuses on advancing RNA LNP (lipid nanoparticle) vaccine capability, translational research, and clinical application — including personalized cancer vaccines with BC Cancer. Both PROGENITER and AVENGER have received federal funding ($30.8M and $31.4M, respectively). In addition, in December 2025, PROGENITER and AVENGER received $6.8M and $3.4M, in turn, as part of a $33 million investment in the CIEBH by the Government of B.C.

AI-Native or AI-Assisted Ecosystem Enablers: From Data to Delivery and Translation

Scaling discovery into patient impact depends on AI-enabled infrastructure — from data and delivery to validation and manufacturing.

The AI and Health Network at UBC is a university-led initiative founded in 2025 and funded by philanthropic donations. Apart from the development of NLP (Natural Language Processing) tools for understanding clinical documents, the Network enables the drug development pipeline on two fronts: (1) the ability to share safe, secure data that supports research and innovation; and (2) the development of foundational models and tools for biological structures that will speed up the drug discovery process and make the process more time- and cost-efficient.

Effective therapies depend on delivery systems that can perform safely and reliably in patients. NanoVation Therapeutics applies data-driven approaches both to unlocking the full potential of nucleic acid therapeutics through next-generation lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery and to designing, optimizing, and scaling delivery systems that enable efficient extrahepatic in vivo delivery. By improving the performance and translatability of nucleic acid drugs, NanoVation acts as a key ecosystem enabler bridging therapeutic innovation and clinical development. In 2024, NanoVation Therapeutics announced a multi-target partnership with Novo Nordisk, highlighting the growing demand for advanced delivery solutions.

Translation also depends on rapid, high-confidence validation. ViewsML is pioneering virtualized immunohistochemistry (IHC), enabling scientists and clinicians to analyze biomarker staining in minutes rather than days to weeks. The company is building the world’s first biomarker library for virtual staining — an expanding platform of AI models that extract per-cell spatial biomarker insights directly from routine pathology images, removing the delays and constraints associated with traditional approaches to staining tissue samples for biomarker identification. This will help to expedite the drug development pipeline by confirming whether a drug is hitting the right targets, matching therapies to the right patients more quickly, and moving promising treatments from the lab to the clinic more efficiently.

Scaling therapies requires rapid progress in process chemistry and manufacturing. Telescope Innovations is a chemical technology company and UBC spin-off. The company develops Self-Driving Labs that incorporate robotic automation, advanced analytics, and AI to accelerate chemical and pharmaceutical R&D. These cross-cutting digital and physical platforms enable rapid process chemistry development, reducing the time and costs of deploying new materials and therapeutics. Telescope Innovations signed a multi-year collaborative Research agreement with Pfizer in 2024 and delivered a Self-Driving Lab to Pfizer in early 2026. Across the planet, Telescope also delivered South Korea’s first Self-Driving Lab for pharmaceutical research in November 2025, through the country’s largest biopharma association.

Together, these enablers contribute to a coordinated, translation-focused ecosystem.

A Province Built on Collaboration and Translational Strength

At a system-level, B.C.’s life sciences ecosystem is anchored by institutions that align research, industry and public investment across the innovation-to-translation continuum. Key provincial anchors include:

• University of British Columbia (UBC) – A global research leader, UBC provides talent pipelines, advanced computing, translational programs, and state‑of‑the‑art research infrastructure.
• BC Cancer – A leader in genomics, bioinformatics and clinical research with platforms that accelerate AI‑enabled precision oncology.
• Genome BC – A foundational partner driving genomics innovation and supporting major precision‑health initiatives, including over $49 million in recent funding for B.C.‑led projects that enhance data ecosystems and AI‑driven clinical applications.
• adMare BioInnovations – B.C.’s national-scale commercialization engine is now expanding wet‑lab capacity in Vancouver through federal and provincial investment to support company growth and scale‑up.
• Life Sciences BC (LSBC) – The sector’s industry association convening hub connects companies, investors, policymakers and global partners through programs such as the annual Access to Innovation Conference.

With these anchors in place, a new generation of companies is advancing innovation across the drug development continuum.

Spotlight: Additional B.C. Companies Shaping Global Life Sciences

• Kapoose Creek Bio — uses AI and advanced multiomic technologies to accelerate the discovery of new medicines from nature. The company’s unEarth Rx platform rapidly characterizes nature’s chemistry, screens for disease activity in parallel, and creates optimized drug leads five times faster than historical methods — putting life-changing therapies within reach for neurological disorders, depression, cancer and more.

• Eyam Health — Eyam’s Gemini™ (an RNA and DNA delivery vector) delivers AI-designed biologic payloads that last months instead of days, can be freeze dried for global distribution, and work without complicated delivery systems that limit current biologics. Published in Nature Communications and backed by the world’s leading global health organizations and global pharma patterns, Eyam is removing major barriers to worldwide medicine access.
•  Gene Bio Medical — part of GBM Health Group, is advancing B.C.’s AI‑enabled diagnostics ecosystem by integrating research, development, and commercialization through its affiliate, Geno10X. In collaboration with Simon Fraser University, the company is developing rapid point‑of‑care technologies that combine ultra‑sensitive nucleic‑acid detection with AI‑driven risk prediction to support earlier detection, real‑time patient stratification, and decentralized clinical decision‑making.

A Province Positioned for Global Impact

British Columbia combines strong research institutions, coordinated public investment, and end-to-end translational capacity to create a globally competitive environment for AI-enabled, next-generation drug development and international partnerships.

Investor Alert:  Unlock the Future of Innovation in British Columbia

Health Tech Unwind 2.0 (May 12, 2026) is a Web Summit 2026 side event hosted by Nimbus Synergies, Pender Ventures, Fasken, and Life Sciences BC (LSBC). This networking event provides a space for health tech startups, investors and ecosystem partners to connect outside the main conference. Attendance is limited and curated. Click here to request to join event.

Venture Spotlight (May 13, 2026) Innovate BC, in partnership with LSBC, is hosting the Venture Spotlight activation that will showcase the next generation of B.C.-grown Life Sciences innovators to investors, media, and industry. Selected applicants will get a half-day exhibiting slot at the BC Pavilion (at Web Summit Vancouver) to share their technology and elevate their visibility. Click here to learn more about the event or click here to learn who to contact at LSBC for more information.

Web Summit Vancouver (May 11-14, 2026) is one of the world’s biggest tech and innovation conferences that brings together innovators, investors, industry leaders, and media. Contact Web Summit Vancouver – May 11-14, 2026 for tickets.

Let us know if there are any upcoming investor engagement opportunities we should know about.

Whether you’re looking for emerging investment opportunities or strategic partnerships, this is your gateway to British Columbia’s results-driven ecosystem on the global stage.

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