$40m 'Superman' backed fund partners with Healx to fight paralysis
Mayfair-based SCI Ventures fund, headed by two-time unicorn founder, Adrien Cohen, has revealed a $2m partnership with rare disease pioneer Healx focused on tackling paralysis as a result of spinal cord injury. It is being feted as one of the first collaborations of its kind.
The scale of the issue is immense: spinal cord injury affects more 20 million people worldwide and in the US alone costs more than $9.7 billion annually. It currently has no cure, despite being biologically well-understood. Rare diseases more widely affect 300 million people and with 90 per cent having no treatment, the stakes are high, ACI Ventures reports.
London-based SCI Ventures is marketed as the world’s first specialist venture fund focused on curing paralysis to accelerate the discovery and development of therapies for spinal cord injury (SCI) using artificial intelligence. This first-of-its kind collaboration will apply Healx’s cutting-edge AI platform to identify new promising treatments for SCI – a life-altering condition affecting over 20 million people globally, with limited treatment options.
The partnership combines the machine learning and drug discovery expertise of Healx with the deep scientific insight, domain expertise, and unique dataset access of SCI Ventures. Backed by leading foundations in the US, UK and EU such as the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, Wings for Life, Spinal Research, Promobilia and the Shepherd Center, SCI Ventures says it brings unmatched credibility and commitment to the neuroregeneration space.
SCI Ventures’ investment in Healx will kickstart a first program targeted at chronic spinal cord injury – a large unmet medical need, and one of the most expensive medical conditions to manage with lifetime care costs reaching $3m-$6m per patient.
By prioritising AI driven target-discovery strategies and drug repurposing, the partnership is set to dramatically shorten the path from discovery to clinical application. Given the recent explosion in multi-omic neuro-regeneration datasets this collaboration is timely.
Tim Guilliams. Co-founder and CEO of Healx, said: “This partnership will allow us to further push the boundaries of what’s possible in AI-driven drug discovery for neurotrauma.
“Spinal cord injury is one of the clearest test cases for our approach – whilst the mechanics and biology is well understood, treatments have lagged behind. If we can unlock progress here, it could open the door to a new generation of AI-powered therapies for previously incurable conditions.”
Adrien Cohen, Founding Managing Director of SCI Ventures added: “Recent technological advancements have made recovery from paralysis a real possibility for the first time in history. We are thrilled to partner with Healx to pioneer a new frontier in neuroregeneration using cutting-edge AI technology.
“By pairing our clinic-ready insight with Healx’s AI engine, we aim to make this the first generation that does not have to live with paralysis for the rest of their lives.”
While the first target is chronic SCI, the collaboration’s impact will extend across a broader spectrum of central nervous system (CNS) conditions.
Spinal cord injury is a biologically well-defined and stable condition, which makes it an ideal strategic indication to generate insights and fast track innovation in other neurological conditions such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s (PD) and Alzheimer’s (AD) — opening the door to potential breakthroughs across the broader neurodegenerative and neurotrauma landscape.
