Gero

About Gero

Gero is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company founded in 2015 by Peter Fedichev and Maxim Kholin. The firm operates at the intersection of physics, generative AI, and biology to address the root causes of aging and complex age-related diseases. The founding vision stems from the scientific backgrounds of its creators. Peter Fedichev, the CEO, transitioned from a career as a highly-cited physicist with a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam into biotech, applying his expertise in complex systems and data science to human health. Co-founder Maxim Kholin brings over two decades of biotech entrepreneurship and a background in law and economics, leading corporate development and fundraising.

The company's core technology is a proprietary, physics-guided artificial intelligence platform. This platform features a Large Health Model (LHM) trained on vast, real-world longitudinal health data from over 100 million patient records. Unlike conventional AI models that identify correlations, Gero's LHM is designed to be fully interpretable, enabling it to distinguish the irreversible biological processes of aging from the reversible mechanisms of diseases. This allows the platform to identify novel therapeutic targets that could potentially address multiple age-related conditions simultaneously, a strategy described as "pipeline-in-a-pill". The platform also utilizes hybrid quantum-classical machine learning to generate novel chemical structures for drug discovery.

Gero's business model is centered on both in-house drug development and strategic collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies. By partnering with firms like Pfizer and Chugai, a member of the Roche Group, Gero leverages its AI platform to discover novel drug targets for specific diseases, such as fibrosis and other age-related conditions. These partnerships generate revenue through upfront payments, substantial development and sales milestones, and royalties on future product sales. For instance, the collaboration with Chugai, focused on developing antibody drugs, could be worth over $250 million in milestones. Concurrently, Gero pursues its own internal research and development programs aimed at creating therapies to significantly extend human healthspan. The company has secured significant funding to advance its platform and drug pipeline, including a Series A extension round of $6 million in October 2023.