Benjamine Liu, Ph.D., is the CEO and co-founder of Formation Bio, an artificial intelligence (AI)–native pharmaceutical company reimagining drug development. Trained as a computational biologist, Liu earned his doctorate at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. His research combined machine learning and scaled healthcare datasets to develop diagnostics and treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. While completing his doctoral work, Liu identified clinical trials, not discovery, as the main bottleneck in bringing new therapies to patients.
With traditional pharmaceutical models taking millions of dollars and years to develop a single drug, Liu built a company focused on what truly moves the needle in expediting clinical development. Formation Bio applies AI, automation and scalable infrastructure to develop drugs faster, more efficiently and with a greater likelihood of success—partnering, acquiring or in-licensing drugs from pharma and biotechs to advance programs past clinical proof of concept and beyond.
Liu guided the company’s collaboration with OpenAI and Sanofi to develop custom, fine-tuned AI models built specifically for drug development, a first-of-its-kind partnership for the pharmaceutical industry. He also led the launch of Muse in late 2024, an AI-driven system that significantly accelerates patient recruitment. Liu spearheaded the successful out-licensing of a dual JAK/SYK inhibitor to Sanofi and, most recently, the in-licensing of IMIDomics’ investigational new drug (IND)–cleared, Phase I ready antibody for autoimmune indications. Formation Bio’s 2024 Series D raise brought in $372 million to expand its portfolio and AI capabilities.
By reengineering how drugs are developed, Liu’s leadership is shortening the path between discovery and patient access.