Viagra Inventor Raises $10m To Find Medicines For Rare Diseases With AI

Dr David Brown, the co-inventor of Viagra, has raised $10 million for his latest healthcare startup, Healx, which is using artificial intelligence to speed up the development of medicines that can be used to treat rare diseases. The funding round was led by venture capital firm Balderton Capital, which has also backed companies like Citymapper, Bebo, and Revolut. Existing investors, Jonathan Milner and Amadeus Capital also participated in the series A round. Brown, Healx's chief scientific officer, founded Healx in 2014 with Cambridge University professor Dr Andreas Bender and Dr Tim Guilliams, who completed a PhD at Cambridge in biophysical neuroscience before becoming an entrepreneur. Brown initially developed viagra to treat heart patients but it soon became apparent that it could be used for other purposes.