Drug development is hard - Big Pharma wouldn't be a $1 TRILLION+ industry if it wasn't. From end to end development, some estimates show nearly a decade of work and $1B of investment is needed to bring a single drug to market, not to mention the incredible attrition rate of molecules that don't pass muster to progress from preclinical to Phase 1/2/3 clinical trials and regulatory approval. Three of the biggest challenges facing the drug development industry in increasing the success rate of bringing drugs to market are the focus of Tempus Labs: drug discovery (finding new molecules to develop), clinical trials (verifying the usage and viability of turning molecules into medicines) and diagnostics (finding the right patients to take each highly complex, specialized drug being developed). It makes sense that these processes could be opportunities for artificial intelligence to accelerate the process - helping doctors understand disease progression by finding the right patients for a trial, etc. Startups in this space are raising ludicrous amounts of money (Tempus Labs itself has raised over $1B) which is a startling contrast to the adjacent digital health space where companies are striving for overall valuations in the $1B ballpark...it's a different game, with different players, and, in some ways, even more competitive. (September 2023)