Startup EQRx claims it can revolutionise drug discovery

A new biotech startup was launched with considerable publicity at this year’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, US. EQRx wants to make the drug discovery process cheaper and quicker, by developing new compounds that are similar to existing, proven drugs, where the target biology is already validated.

Anyone familiar with the drug discovery process would refer to these as ‘fast-follower’ or ‘me-too’ drugs, and rightly say that they have been part of the drug development landscape for many years (all the while lambasted by industry critics as lacking innovation). So what is different about EQRx?