Highlights & Summary

Pharma-AI partnerships kept September busy, with AbbVie teaming up with Iambic and Genentech paying Earendil Labs $55M upfront in a bispecific antibody deal worth over $1.5B, while a $95M Seattle initiative launched to build AI tools for biological design. In diagnostics, FDA cleared CapsoVision's AI reading tool for capsule endoscopy and DeepHealth’s next-generation chest XRay AI solution, and Tempus won up to $9.5M from ARPA-H to build an autonomous heart failure agent. On the healthcare side, OpenAI connected ChatGPT to Epic records, Cigna partnered with OpenAI starting in oncology, and Abridge secured a seat on the VA's $775.72M-ceiling ambient AI contract.

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Headlines

AI in Drug Discovery  

1 | AbbVie and Iambic Announce Collaboration to Accelerate AI-driven Drug Discovery | Partnership

2 | Earendil Labs Announces Research Collaboration with Genentech to Discover and Develop Therapeutic Bispecific Antibodies in Oncology | Partnership

3 | Seattle Research Coalition Launches $95M AI BioDesign Initiative to Design New Biological Molecules | New Research

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AI in Diagnostics  

1 | CapsoVision Announces FDA Clearance of AI Highlights for CapsoCam Plus | Regulatory

2 | Tempus Secures Up to $9.5 Million in ARPA-H ADVOCATE Funding to Deploy First Autonomous AI in Cardiology | Financing

3 | DeepHealth Receives FDA Clearance for Next-Generation Chest XRay AI Solution Built on a Proprietary Foundation Model | Regulatory

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AI in Healthcare  

1 | OpenAI Connects Epic EHR Data to ChatGPT for Healthcare and Adds a Public Healthcare Data Plugin | New Product

2 | The Cigna Group and OpenAI Collaborate to Advance Care for Complex Conditions | Partnership

3 | Abridge Selected to Bring Ambient AI to Veteran Care Nationwide Through the VA Enterprise Contract | Commercial

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Summaries

AI in Drug Discovery  

1 | AbbVie and Iambic Announce Collaboration to Accelerate AI-driven Drug Discovery | Partnership

AbbVie and Iambic announced a multi-year collaboration to apply Iambic's AI platform to small molecule discovery in immunology, neuroscience and oncology. The companies will pursue programs with both first-in-class and best-in-class potential, pairing Iambic's AI-driven molecular design with AbbVie's therapeutic area expertise.  

2 | Earendil Labs Announces Research Collaboration with Genentech to Discover and Develop Therapeutic Bispecific Antibodies in Oncology | Partnership

Genentech will pay AI-driven biologics company Earendil Labs $55M upfront, with total potential value above $1.5B. Earendil will lead antibody discovery and research through early clinical development for multiple oncology bispecific programs, using its platform of predictive protein modeling, generative protein design and rapid experimental validation.  

3 | Seattle Research Coalition Launches $95M AI BioDesign Initiative to Design New Biological Molecules | New Research

The University of Washington, Allen Institute and Fred Hutch Cancer Center launched AI BioDesign, a roughly $95M effort funded by the Fund for Science and Technology, led by David Baker and Jay Shendure. AI models will propose biological designs that scientists build and test in the lab, with the results fed back to improve the next round of designs. The work aims to create open scientific resources, with potential applications ranging from cancer treatments to enzymes that break down plastics.

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AI in Diagnostics  

1 | CapsoVision Announces FDA Clearance of AI Highlights for CapsoCam Plus | Regulatory

CapsoVision received FDA clearance on September 25 for AI Highlights, an AI-assisted reading tool for small bowel capsule endoscopy studies performed for suspected bleeding with its CapsoCam Plus system. The algorithm analyzes frames from the capsule and flags images with suspected abnormal lesions to prioritize them for physician review, within the existing CapsoView and CapsoCloud workflow.  

2 | Tempus Secures Up to $9.5 Million in ARPA-H ADVOCATE Funding to Deploy First Autonomous AI in Cardiology | Financing

Tempus was selected by ARPA-H to receive up to $9.5M through its ADVOCATE program to build what it calls the first autonomous clinical AI agent for heart failure care. The funding will support development and a multi-center prospective study to validate the agent. It builds on existing Tempus products including the Olivia patient concierge, the Tempus Next care-gap software, and three FDA-cleared ECG-AI products.

3 | DeepHealth Receives FDA Clearance for Next-Generation Chest XRay AI Solution Built on a Proprietary Foundation Model | Regulatory

DeepHealth announced FDA 510(k) clearance on September 16 for Chest XRay, a computer-aided detection solution built on a foundation model. The model is trained on large volumes of chest X-ray images and designed to speed the development of additional findings and workflow capabilities. The same model is already used in Europe through a CE-marked version that DeepHealth says analyzes more than 2.8 million exams annually.  

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AI in Healthcare  

1 | OpenAI Connects Epic EHR Data to ChatGPT for Healthcare and Adds a Public Healthcare Data Plugin | New Product

OpenAI announced on September 1 that healthcare organizations can connect supported Epic environments to ChatGPT for Healthcare, either by pulling authorized patient information into ChatGPT to review history and prepare for appointments or, in some deployments, by embedding ChatGPT directly in an EHR layout. UCSF Health is a pilot partner.  

2 | The Cigna Group and OpenAI Collaborate to Advance Care for Complex Conditions | Partnership

Cigna announced on September 23 that it will embed OpenAI's frontier reasoning models into clinical workflows and consumer-facing experiences, starting with cancer care. The first capability gives oncology nurses and case managers at Cigna Healthcare and Accredo Specialty Pharmacy a combined view of each member's clinical, pharmacy, behavioral and benefits information, along with patient-reported questions and side effects, to identify needs earlier between physician visits.  

3 | Abridge Selected to Bring Ambient AI to Veteran Care Nationwide Through the VA Enterprise Contract | Commercial

Abridge was selected to provide ambient AI under the Department of Veterans Affairs' new enterprise contract. Abridge's pilot is live in VA primary care, about a dozen specialties and the Clinical Resource Hubs, and integrates with both the legacy VistA/CPRS and new federal EHR environments at more than 75 medical centers.