AI has been one of the biggest buzzwords in biotech for years now — but for all the technological progress, actual R&D productivity gains have been hard to find, and the cost of developing a new drug keeps climbing. My guest today believes that's because AI alone was never going to be the answer.

Valo, a biotech founded by Flagship Pioneering, is betting on a different approach: combining AI, predictive chemistry, and — crucially — real-world human data from the very start of drug discovery, using access to more than 17 million longitudinal patient records, some spanning 20 years. That approach has already attracted major partners, including a Parkinson's collaboration with EMD Serono worth up to $3 billion and a cardiometabolic disease partnership with Novo.

Joining me to talk about it is Valo's CEO, Brian Alexander — a former practicing radiation oncologist whose years treating patients with aggressive brain tumors helped shape his mission to reimagine how we discover medicines. Brian, welcome to the show.

• 01:30 — Meet Brian Alexander
• 04:17 — How treating brain tumor patients shaped his mission
• 09:58 — Valo's two-platform approach to drug discovery
• 16:23 — What 20-year patient records reveal about disease
• 22:23 — Why Valo positions itself as pharma's R&D engine
• 32:43 — How this approach could raise clinical success rates

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To dive deeper into the topic:

• Episode 198: The problem at the heart of drug discovery: Lexogen & Ochre Bio on the power of AI on human data
• How human-first datasets are reshaping AI drug discovery
• Webinar: How AI has changed drug discovery & development, and what’s coming next