Pathos AI raises $237 million, UnitedHealthcare expands its AI companion to 21 million members, and more - Life AI Weekly #91

In this edition, covering 21 to 27 October:

• Pathos AI raised $237 million in a Series E led by Bristol Myers Squibb at a valuation of about $3 billion, and Warp Sciences launched with $215 million to automate drug labs.
• A study found Microsoft's GPT-5 based DxO diagnosed 79.6% to 84.5% of cases correctly, compared with 22.3% for physicians without reference tools and 36.1% with them.
• UnitedHealthcare is expanding its AI care companion Avery from about 6.66 million to 21 million members.

Drug discovery

Pathos AI raised $237 million in a Series E led by Bristol Myers Squibb at a valuation of about $3 billion, for its Foundry agent platform and four oncology programs. Former OpenAI science lead Kevin Weil launched Warp Sciences, which trains robots to make and test drug compounds, with $215 million at an $865 million valuation. Anthropic is working with six organizations, including Bristol Myers Squibb and Generate Biomedicines, on Claude for drug design, manufacturing and trial planning. Pathos AI · Warp Sciences · Anthropic

OpenAI, PerturbAI and Scripps Research used thousands of GPT-Rosalind agents to analyze data from millions of mouse brain cells in 32 minutes. NVIDIA and the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design released the open RFD4-Proteina model, which Genedata added to its discovery workflows. Bayer is giving its scientists Phylo's Biomni Lab, Lunit and Summit Therapeutics will use AI pathology in ivonescimab research, and Insilico Medicine reported early Phase 1 data for ISM6331. GPT-Rosalind · RFD4-Proteina · Genedata · Bayer · Lunit · Insilico

Boehringer Ingelheim and Microsoft will study digital patient twins for clinical trials, starting with lung health, and Swiss Atlas Bio raised $12.5 million for a model of virtual clinical trials. iReprogram and the University of Michigan launched a diabetes cell reprogramming initiative. Boehringer Ingelheim · Atlas Bio · Michigan

Diagnosis and the clinic

A study of DxO, a Microsoft system that uses GPT-5 to gather information, choose tests and update diagnoses, found it reached 79.6% to 84.5% accuracy across 629 cases, compared with 22.3% for physicians without reference tools and 36.1% with them; the researchers say it needs testing in real clinical settings. NICE recommended in draft guidance five AI tools that flag possible prostate cancer on MRI scans, with a radiologist still reviewing every scan. Google says its tuberculosis X-ray AI runs in about 40 facilities in Africa, and Indonesia is tuning MedGemma to screen 50 million people a year. DxO · NICE · Google

Eko Health received FDA clearance for its CORE 300 AI stethoscope, RIVANNA for a bone imaging module and Coreline Soft for AVIEW Aorta Metrics. Vera Health raised $28.5 million for clinical AI search used by more than 800,000 clinicians, and Limber Health launched a 90 day recovery forecast for rehabilitation. Eko Health · RIVANNA · Coreline Soft · Vera Health · Limber Health

Care, insurers and hospital systems

UnitedHealthcare is expanding its AI care companion Avery from about 6.66 million to 21 million members and says it resolves 90% of interactions. Epic is releasing Connectors that let its AI agents work across third party software. Tufts Medicine will use Humata Health to process prior authorizations for some imaging in minutes instead of days. The US Department of Health and Human Services plans a sole source contract to keep using Claude. UnitedHealthcare · Epic · Tufts Medicine · HHS

Baba raised a $40 million Series A for AI that connects Medicare and Medicaid patients to care teams. Ping An Good Doctor says its AI Doctor service has nearly 13 million users. ACL Digital launched AgentixCare for payers and providers, Tairex an AI system with 54 simulated doctors, and Alethios tools for decentralized studies. Baba · Ping An · ACL Digital · Tairex · Alethios

Funding and research data

The OpenAI Startup Fund and Founders Fund backed Coherence Neuro in a $45 million seed round for a brain implant to detect and treat cancer. BioStack raised $9.5 million for a medical data network with more than 100 million deidentified records, adsilico £10 million to test medical devices on virtual patients, and BioVid launched synthetic physician audiences for research. Coherence Neuro · BioStack · adsilico · BioVid