Biotech’s Latest Unicorn Uses AI to Mine Nature’s Medicine Chest

Nature is a prolific pharmacist. Aspirin, the blood thinner warfarin and metformin for diabetes all trace back to plants, discovered by serendipity before being transformed into drugs by modern chemistry.

Biotech’s latest unicorn, the closely held firm Enveda, wants to shave a few centuries off the journey from nature to the medicine cabinet, using artificial intelligence to scour thousands of plants for potential next breakthroughs.