Founded in 2017, VeriSIM Life (San Francisco) has a quest to use biosimulation technology to streamline drug discovery and development. The company’s BIOiSIM virtual drug development engine helps pharma and biotech companies optimize R&D spending.
The company’s founder and CEO, Dr. Jo Varshney, also wants to help reduce the need for animal testing in drug development. The industry’s “reliance on animal testing has been ridiculously bad for the industry, if not horrible in terms of time and costs,” said Varshney, a veterinarian.
Varshney sees the Senate’s unanimous passage of the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 as a good omen. The legislation, if signed into law, would reduce animal testing in the coming years.
Other factors bode well for reducing the industry’s reliance on animal testing. First, computational resources continue to become less expensive and more powerful, making AI drug development models increasing…