Allos AI raises £4m seed to reformulate complex generics using Causal AI
This article covers Allos AI, a biotech startup, which has raised £4m in a seed funding round led by Oxford Science Enterprises to apply Causal AI to reformulate complex small-molecule generic drugs. It aims to support reformulation of approved small-molecule generics to improve drug delivery and tolerability for patients with complex conditions.
Allos AI, a biotech startup, has raised £4 million in a seed funding round led by Oxford Science Enterprises to apply Causal AI to reformulate complex small-molecule generic drugs — an approach intended to improve how existing medicines are delivered and tolerated by patients.
Why it matters
Many patients with chronic, complex conditions rely on specialty drugs that work clinically but are difficult to tolerate or adhere to because of formulation or delivery issues. Reformulating an approved drug typically means restarting development and clinical pathways, creating cost, regulatory and time barriers that often deter manufacturers.
That inertia leaves patients on suboptimal formulations for years even as the global specialty generics market grows. Efforts that make reformulation faster and more predictable could reduce variability in outcomes and lower the threshold for companies to update medicines already on the market.
Inside the product
Allos AI uses Causal AI to model how formulation, dosing, delivery and patient biology interact to influence clinical outcomes. The company says its approach combines mechanistic thinking with real-world evidence to account for patient and disease heterogeneity upfront. In practice, that aims to identify reformulation pathways that deliver more predictable benefits across stratified patient populations, allowing smaller and faster clinical studies that are easier to interpret.
The strategy is targeted at “hard-to-genericise” small-molecule medicines where tolerability, bioavailability or delivery limit wider use or adherence. The new funding will be used to expand formulation development and data science capabilities to pursue those opportunities.
Who are the investors?
The £4 million seed round was led by Oxford Science Enterprises, with participation from Habico Invest and the University of California accelerator Berkeley SKYDECK.
The funding is intended to support Allos AI’s expansion across formulation development and data science as it focuses on complex generics and other medicines where reformulation could materially change patient experience.
In the announcement, Joel Schoppig, Investor at Oxford Science Enterprises, said:
Most AI efforts in drug development focus on discovering new molecules, but that’s not where the near-term opportunity lies. AI has been pointed at problems that take decades to commercialise, while the biggest barriers in patient care stem from how existing drugs are formulated and delivered. Allos applies Causal AI where it can have immediate impact: improving medicines that already work but remain limited by tolerability, bioavailability, or delivery. By turning reformulation into an evidence-driven engineering discipline, Allos has the potential to reshape how complex generics and high-risk NCE programs advance.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of biotech venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of biotech angel investors in the UK
Founder perspective
In the announcement, Aditya Iyer, Co-founder & CEO at Allos AI, said:
For decades, the pharmaceutical system has treated approval as the finish line, even though for patients it marks the start of a much longer journey. What’s been missing is a practical way to keep improving medicines after they reach the market, without relying on workarounds or intuition. With Causal AI, we’re building a development platform that allows improvement to be intentional, evidence-driven, and repeatable. Over time, that has the potential to fundamentally change how complex drugs are developed, maintained, and experienced.
The bigger picture
The deal underscores a growing interest from biotech investors in applying AI to nearer-term, translational problems rather than only molecule discovery. Using data-driven methods to reduce development uncertainty could make it commercially viable for manufacturers to revisit and improve approved drugs, which in turn could affect adherence and long-term outcomes for patients.
For the UK and Europe, the funding is another example of capital flowing into startups that combine AI and life sciences expertise to tackle practical bottlenecks in drug development and post-approval improvement. If Allos AI’s approach shortens timelines and reduces regulatory friction for reformulations, it may shift how the industry treats the post-approval lifecycle of complex medicines.
They've invested in Allos AI
Get to know these biotech investors
Click here for a full list of 7,526+ startup investors in the UK