Atomwise’s founding CEO Abraham Heifets has left the company after a dozen years, Endpoints News has learned, in the latest challenge for one of the first AI-focused biotech startups.
Heifets’ exit was confirmed by a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, and the departure was not publicly announced by the company. He lists May 2024 as the end of his tenure on his LinkedIn profile, and he’s no longer on the leadership page of the biotech’s website. Atomwise’s top lawyer, Jeffrey Cerio, also left in August to become Korro Bio’s general counsel.
Nobody has been named to fill those roles, and Atomwise declined to comment on the future leadership of the startup. Heifets didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
But the exits appear to be the latest setbacks for the first generation of AI-focused startups that were founded about a decade ago: Recursion’s lead drug produced mixed mid-stage results; Insilico Medicine is not moving forward with IPO plans in Hong Kong; and Exscientia agreed to merge with Recursion after its first programs fell short in the clinic.
Atomwise has been on an up-and-down journey since its 2012 founding. Heifets and Izhar Wallach, still the company’s chief technology officer, started Atomwise as PhD students at the University of Toronto, looking to bring then-cutting-edge AI technologies into drug discovery. The biotech participated in the Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2015.
The San Francisco-based biotech has raised over $170 million from investors such as B Capital Group and DCVC, including a $123 million Series B in 2020. But it hasn’t announced an additional raise since.
It’s also struggled to find success with its original business model, which included signing more than 750 partnerships with academics, biotechs and large pharma companies. Those agreements have yet to advance a single molecule into human testing.
In December 2022, the company laid off about 30 people and pivoted to building its own pipeline. In an interview a year ago, Heifets told Endpoints Atomwise aimed to file an IND for its lead drug, a TYK2 inhibitor, in the second half of 2024.
It remains to be seen if Atomwise will meet that timeline for its TYK2 program. On its website, the company lists a pipeline of four programs, all of which have yet to enter the IND-enabling stage.
The company declined to comment on its clinical and capital plans as well.