Basecamp Research Lands $140m as AI Drug Design Draws Big Pharma Money

Basecamp Research has closed an oversubscribed US$140m Series C round, one of the clearest signals yet that AI-designed therapeutics have become a magnet for pharmaceutical and technology capital.

Venture capital firm S32 led the financing. NVIDIA and Anthropic participated through Menlo Ventures' Anthology Fund.

The round drew a broad syndicate: Catalio Capital Management, European Tech Collective, Firebrand River Capital, ATO Innovation Fund, Redalpine, The Rockefeller Foundation, Singular and True Ventures all invested. Sovereign AI, the UK's state-backed, AI-focused venture fund launched in April 2026, also took part.

The investor list extends to senior leaders across pharma, biotech and global industry. André Hoffmann, Vice-Chairman of Roche, put his own weight behind the company.

"The biotechnology revolution that began fifty years ago transformed how we make medicines. Personalised, AI-designed therapeutics represent the next transformation of that journey," Hoffmann says.

"Basecamp Research has built the full platform to deliver it, from biological data to trained models to designed therapies. This will be key in helping the industry to continue to innovate."

Roche doubles down on Boston

The financing lands as Roche and its US subsidiary Genentech press ahead with a US$50bn commitment to American manufacturing and R&D over five years, pledged in April 2025.

The newest example: the Roche Genentech Innovation Centre Boston, a research hub focused on cardiovascular, renal and metabolic (CVRM) diseases. The facility sits at Harvard's Enterprise Research Campus in Allston.

The companies signed a 10-year lease on the 95,000-square-foot site, which has capacity for up to 500 people across research, clinical development, data science and other functions.

Manu Chakravarthy, SVP and Global Head of CVRM Product Development at Roche, says the location will connect the company with the region's scientific community. Writing on LinkedIn after the 17 September 2026 grand opening, he struck a collaborative note.

"Bringing together world-class scientists, academic leaders, clinicians and policymakers for a day of dialogue about the future of medicine reinforced a fundamental truth: solving the complex challenges of cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease is not something any of us can do alone," Chakravarthy writes.

"Putting our roots down here in Allston within the vibrant Boston life sciences ecosystem reflects our long-term commitment to this scientific community and to the millions of patients worldwide counting on us to deliver breakthrough medicines."

AbbVie signs Iambic

AI drug discovery continues to pull the industry's largest players into partnerships with emerging biotechs and established technology firms alike.

AbbVie has now partnered with Iambic, a biotech backed by NVIDIA and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, on a multi-year collaboration to accelerate small-molecule drug discovery and development. The work will span immunology, neuroscience and oncology, with the companies targeting potential first-in-class and best-in-class medicines.

Iambic also announced it will file for a US IPO. It plans to use the proceeds to advance three early-stage oncology drugs.

"At Iambic, our mission is to make better technology for better medicines – in our own hands and with partners. That's why we are incredibly proud to announce a new, multi-year collaboration with global pharmaceutical leader AbbVie," CEO and Co-Founder Thomas Miller writes on LinkedIn.

"Together we will apply Iambic's molecular superintelligence platform toward the discovery of small-molecule programmes with first-in-class and best-in-class potential across therapeutic areas of immunology, neuroscience and oncology."

Merck Group wins sustainability award

Merck Group took home the Transformation Project of the Year award at the Global Sustainability Awards 2026, recognised for developing bio-based solvents for analytical applications.

The project targets an often-overlooked source of emissions in pharmaceutical research: laboratory consumables. Merck Group's work develops less carbon-intensive alternatives to conventional, fossil-derived solvents used across life sciences.

The award-winning project shows how changes to essential laboratory materials can support decarbonisation while maintaining the performance standards required for highly controlled analytical environments.

Europe's pharma chiefs sound the alarm

The chairs of nine leading European pharmaceutical companies have jointly called for action to strengthen the continent's pharmaceutical sector in an open letter to European political leaders. Their warning comes as the US and China ramp up investment and clinical trial activity.

The numbers they cite are stark. Europe accounted for 43% of global pharmaceutical R&D in 1990. That share has fallen to 31% and continues to drop, according to figures cited by the companies.

Clinical research tells a similar story. The chairs say Europe's share of commercial clinical trials has halved over the past decade to 9%, reducing opportunities for European patients to participate in trials and limiting the investment clinical studies bring to health systems.

The letter cites European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) data showing that around 40% of newly approved therapies never reach European patients, while those that do can take nearly 600 days to become available.

For an industry pouring billions into AI-driven discovery and US-based research hubs, the message from Europe's chairs is blunt: without policy action, the continent risks watching the next generation of medicines being developed — and delivered — elsewhere.