Using AI to Accelerate Drug Development

Altis Labs is charting a course to fundamentally reshape oncology and potentially save countless lives and billions of dollars by training unique AI models on the world’s largest cancer imaging dataset.

Clinical trial failures for new treatments are common and costly, but the Toronto-based company’s accurate approach is using AI to predict patient progression and survival to offer a new path forward. “An oncology drug’s approval is based on improving survival compared to the standard of care, but most new cancer drugs only extend median survival by about two months,” says CEO Felix Baldauf-Lenschen, Co-founder of Altis Labs. “Our work helps predict patient outcomes earlier, cutting down trial timelines, accelerating drug approvals and getting better treatments to patients faster.”

The Power of Digital Twins

Through their Accelerating Cancer Trials with Digital Twins project, Altis curated a dataset of more than 182 million real-world images, diagnostic records, treatments and outcomes, which it then used to develop its platform, Nota. The platform generates “digital twins,” AI-generated virtual representations of patients enrolled in clinical trials.

In 2023, Altis Labs secured a $6-million USD seed-funding round, which fuelled the expansion of its team. Partnerships with leading Canadian cancer centres then allowed the company to validate and refine its AI models, a crucial step in ultimately gaining the trust of major pharma players.

Heavy Hitters Come Aboard

AstraZeneca and Bayer Pharmaceuticals soon joined the collaboration, incorporating Altis Labs’ models into their analyses to better quantify treatment effects. For multinational companies like these, the ability to use digital twins helps to prioritize promising drug candidates earlier, potentially shaving years off traditional drug development timelines.

In 2025, Altis Labs’ technology made headlines when it reanalyzed data from AstraZeneca’s 2017 MYSTIC trial, a lung cancer study that originally failed to prove its efficacy. Altis Labs’ AI model, IPRO, was able to more accurately predict overall survival outcomes compared to the traditional tumor size measurements. Today, the company’s models are deployed across four major Phase III trials involving close to 4,000 patients. Altis Labs is looking to expand its work beyond lung cancer into breast, liver, prostate and colorectal forms of the disease.

“The DIGITAL project provided non-dilutive funding that allowed us to build a strong data foundation for our AI model development, which enabled AstraZeneca to deploy our models in their clinical trials,” Baldauf-Lenschen explains. “In pharma, data and evidence are everything. Clinical trials are designed to prove a drug’s efficacy, so companies have a high threshold for implementing new technology. The DIGITAL project helped us generate the evidence needed to build confidence with partners such as AstraZeneca and Bayer.”

41% Failure rate of Phase III clinical trials

182M+ Size of imaging dataset curated by Altis

4,000 Patients involved in Phase III trials using the AI model

$7.5B Total annual cancer costs in Canada

Impact Beyond Trials

The implications of Altis Labs’ work extend far beyond the pharma industry. Oncologists could eventually use IPRO for real-time clinical decision-making, tailoring treatments based on a patient’s specific imaging characteristics and predicted outcomes. For patients, this could mean a new level of personalized care.

Baldauf-Lenschen reflects on the bigger picture: “Ultimately, success means patients live longer and better lives. In oncology, even modest gains in survival are celebrated, but we have the opportunity to take an even greater leap forward.”

Better, Faster, More Personalized Care

Looking ahead, Altis Labs plans to further solidify its position as a leader in AI-driven precision medicine. Achieving this will require continued collaboration with cancer centres, pharma companies, regulators and investors. “DIGITAL’s support made our resources go much further and helped align multiple organizations,” Baldauf-Lenschen says. “Going forward, the type of support that DIGITAL offers can help us continue expanding our work on new projects.”

In an era where timelines for drug development can be the difference between life and death, Altis Labs’ approach offers hope. The company is not only speeding up trials but also moving the entire field closer to a future where better, faster, more personalized care becomes the norm.

Get in Touch

Interested in learning more about how DIGITAL can help support your Canadian health technology or connect you to Canadian solutions providers? Get in touch with Jesse Coleman, Manager of Health Programs today!