In a major development for healthcare technology, Axiom Diagnostics, an AI-powered drug safety startup, has raised a $200 million Series C funding round. The company aims to transform how pharmaceutical companies detect drug toxicity, making the entire process faster, safer, and more ethical.
Founded in late 2023 by serial entrepreneurs Brandon White and Alex Beatson, Axiom has been on a mission to solve one of the drug industry’s biggest pain points: the failure of early toxicity testing to accurately predict how drugs will behave in humans. More than 90% of drugs that pass animal studies still fail during human trials, often due to unexpected toxicity. This not only delays life-saving treatments but also costs pharmaceutical companies billions annually.
Axiom’s approach is to use AI-powered models trained on human cell data, rather than relying on traditional animal testing or early-stage human testing. Their first major focus has been on modeling liver toxicity, which accounts for 20–25% of drug trial failures. By digitizing and analyzing the behavior of human liver cells, Axiom can help drug makers catch problems long before reaching the clinic.
The Series C round is a significant leap forward for the company. Previous funding rounds included a $7 million seed and an $8 million Series A. With the new $200 million infusion, Axiom plans to expand its platform well beyond liver cells. The next step: building models of other key organs like the heart, kidney, and brain—all of which are critical for drug safety.
Investors are clearly excited about the potential. The Series C was led by existing backers including Amplify Partners, who have supported Axiom since its early days. According to Amplify, the team’s progress has been “astonishing” in the short time since its founding. Axiom has already demonstrated that its AI models can match or exceed the performance of gold-standard industry assays used by pharma giants such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca—but at a fraction of the cost.
And Axiom isn’t working in isolation. The company is currently collaborating with six of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical firms, as well as with several innovative biotech and agrochemical companies. These early partnerships are a critical proof point that Axiom’s platform is commercially viable and can integrate into real-world drug development pipelines.
Why is this so important? Traditional drug safety testing relies heavily on animal models, which are both expensive and unreliable. There is a growing push across the industry—and among regulators—to move toward in silico (computer-based) testing and other animal-free methods. Not only are these methods faster and cheaper, but they are also seen as more humane and potentially more predictive of human outcomes.
As one industry expert told BioPharmaTrend, “Animal testing is becoming obsolete… more than 90% of drugs that pass them ultimately fail in human trials.” Axiom’s platform directly addresses this challenge.
There’s also growing regulatory momentum behind this shift. In 2022, the U.S. Congress passed the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, encouraging alternatives to animal testing in drug development. This creates an enormous opportunity for AI-driven approaches like Axiom’s to gain acceptance as part of the regulatory framework.
Looking ahead, Axiom plans to use its Series C funding to:
- Scale its datasets to model additional human cell types.
- Expand its AI platform with rigorous third-party validation.
- Deepen its pharma partnerships, turning pilot programs into long-term integrations.
- Engage with regulators such as the FDA and EMA to ensure its models can become an accepted part of drug safety submissions.
If successful, Axiom could dramatically reduce the time and cost required to bring new, safe drugs to market. Today, developing a new drug costs roughly $2.6 billion and can take over 10 years. A key part of that timeline is toxicity testing—an area ripe for disruption.
For patients, this shift could mean faster access to innovative treatments with better safety profiles. For pharma companies, it offers a way to de-risk development earlier in the pipeline. And for the industry as a whole, it marks a path toward more ethical, animal-free testing methods.
“Axiom Diagnostics is positioned to transform the multi-billion-dollar market for drug toxicity testing,” said a spokesperson from Amplify Partners. It’s a bold vision, but with $200 million in fresh capital, industry buy-in, and promising early results, Axiom is now well-equipped to make it a reality.
As AI continues to reshape industries from finance to healthcare, Axiom Diagnostics is a prime example of how deep tech innovation can solve real-world problems—in this case, helping to make safer drugs available to the people who need them most.