Formation Bio

AI-native pharma company, bringing new treatments to patients faster and more efficiently.

[Dan Primack @danprimack]

Formation raises $600 million to fix AI's biotech bottleneck https://t.co/fA3iMixaXE

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

Tune in around 3:40pm EST to hear @BenjamineYLiu on @tbpn!

[TBPN @tbpn]

Happy Wednesday. On today's show:

- @markgurman (Bloomberg)
- @zachrash (Coco Robotics)
- @BenjamineYLiu (Formation Bio)
- @AmiramShachar (Upwind)
- @zjasper (Hyperbolic)

See you on the stream.

[Forbes @Forbes]

Most AI drug development firms are focused on discovery. AI biotech Formation Bio is betting the real bottleneck is clinical trials. With a new $600 million fund to buy or license potential drugs that have stalled out, the startup now hopes to prove that it’s right.
Read more: https://t.co/gJI2TRSSVD
📸: Guerin Blask for Forbes

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

Learn more about our new $600M Formation Bio Drug Development Accelerator Fund here.

[Ben Liu @BenjamineYLiu]

Today we’re announcing the $600M Formation Bio Drug Development Accelerator Fund.

@lintaho and I started @FormationBio because we believed the biggest bottleneck in bringing new medicines to patients wasn’t drug discovery, but drug development.

As AI dramatically accelerates discovery, that bottleneck is only becoming more acute. Without the capital and capacity to advance promising drugs through clinical trials, much of that progress won’t translate into medicines for patients.

Our new Fund brings together dedicated capital, drug development expertise, and AI-powered development capabilities to acquire promising drugs and advance them through the clinic.

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

(3/3) Phyla aggregates 90 tools across 27 biomedical sources and ties every single claim to a checkable citation. When asked a plain language question, Phyla pulls the gene record, checks clinical precedent, computes tissue-specific expression, and runs mechanistic analysis over the results — returning an answer with every claim traced to a source. Here’s how we built it, and how it’s used at Formation: https://t.co/j298FdDBHe

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

(1/3) Phyla is Formation Bio’s context layer for causal biology. We benchmarked it against Claude Science and GPT-Rosalind on writing full research dossiers for 7 drug target–disease pairs, and the results are in. 99.7% of Phyla’s statements carried a citation, compared to Claude Science: 87% (Claude Science) and 86% (GPT-Rosalind). Phyla never dropped below 99.3% on any pair.

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

(2/3) In an audit of claims, Phyla led on every target-disease pair. 92% of Phyla’s claims were fully backed by the source it cited, vs. 80% (Claude Science) and 67% (GPT-Rosalind).

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

Phyla aggregates 90 tools across 27 biomedical sources and ties every single claim to a checkable citation. Benchmarked against two other frontier AI life-science platforms, writing full research dossiers across 7 target–disease pairs: 99.7% of Phyla’s statements carried a citation (vs. 87% and 86%), and 92% of its claims were fully backed by the cited source (vs. 80% and 67%). See how we built it, and how it’s being used at Formation: https://t.co/j298FdD3RG

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

https://t.co/KueaIn19Gp

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

“As a company in the era of AI, you should have a thesis for what predictions will happen first, what will happen last, and make sure your company strategy absorbs this as a net tailwind versus a headwind.”

Our thesis: AI will improve drug discovery first, toxicity next, and clinical efficacy last. Our CEO @BenjamineYLiu explores this in his Uneven Frontiers essay – link in comments.

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

Formation Bio made #7 on @FastCompany's Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026.

This piece highlights one of our internal systems: ARK (AI-ready Repository of Knowledge), our in-house AI platform that connects all internal systems and data across the company. Full write-up here: https://t.co/oWjANp5hOo

Our open roles: https://t.co/5gCuqXn3iU
Learn more about ARK: https://t.co/vv2SwsWbsi

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

Proud to be selected as #7 on @FastCompany's 2026 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators, plus as a winner on the Biotech, Healthcare & Life Sciences list.

Find us on the full list: https://t.co/OYwbhoE66x
We're hiring across New York and Boston now: https://t.co/GbI5RsSjGW

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

@BenjamineYLiu @LanceGlinn @NYSE Spotify: https://t.co/UKt8fArD0A
Youtube: https://t.co/AQagdQpKGx

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

Our CEO @BenjamineYLiu recently sat down with @LanceGlinn on @NYSE's Inside the ICE House to talk about how and why Formation Bio is tackling the drug development bottleneck, a problem that is only set to grow as the number of drugs at the top of the funnel increases. Links to listen in comments:

[NYSE 🏛 @NYSE]

Hear from @formationbio co-founder & CEO Ben Liu on @ICEHousePodcast where he talks about...

- Bottleneck's slowing down drug development
- AI's impact on drug discovery
- Bringing new medicines to patients

Spotify: https://t.co/bwJgUQn4L0
YouTube: https://t.co/tnJ7THYBAk

[Substack @Substack]

"In a world of drug discovery abundance, the scarce capability is no longer making drugs, but rather, knowing which drugs are worth developing."

@BenjamineYLiu, co-founder and CEO of Formation Bio, explains how AI will transform the economics of the pharma industry - link in replies

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

What drew Mike Ehlers, our new Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D, to Formation Bio? Hear it in his own words.

More on Mike’s life outside the lab in today’s @statnews executive moves column: https://t.co/nNNaUydOgv

[Formation Bio @formationbio]

In his latest blog, our Principal Engineer Kenny Peng revisits the Unix philosophy (do one thing well, compose freely, shared interfaces) as a blueprint for agentic system design.

Using biopharma as the test case, he breaks down why hardcoded pipelines break down over time, and what composable alternatives require. Read here: https://t.co/hiQhKl2x8g

[Katie Schwartz @katieschwartz]

.@BenjamineYLiu has raised more than $600M for his AI-native biopharma company - and he's hiring!

@formationbio is applying AI to drug development, with a mission to bring new treatments to patients faster and more efficiently.

The team is hiring across the board, including:

- Director, Brand & Communications
- Senior Director or VP, Product
- General Manager (Drug Asset Lead)
- Principal Data Scientist, Medical Imaging
- Data Scientist, Portfolio Optimization
- Director, Business Development - Search & Evaluation

Full story + list of open roles in thread!

[Bloomberg @business]

Formation Bio said it has appointed former Biogen research head Michael Ehlers as its chief scientific officer, bringing a seasoned drug and biotech veteran into the AI-focused health startup. https://t.co/xIdCAN6Y88