Multiply Labs Raises $75 Million to Transform Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
Artificial intelligence is changing how scientists discover potential medicines, but manufacturing complex treatments at scale remains a major challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. San Francisco-based technology company Multiply Labs is working to address this problem with robotics designed to automate pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The company announced a $75 million Series B funding round on October 6, 2026. The investment brings its total funding to more than $100 million since its founding in 2016.
The funding round was led by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong through NantWorks, with participation from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, investment firm Lingotto, Teradyne, Strange Ventures and several existing investors.
Why Drug Manufacturing Needs Automation
Developing a new medicine and producing it reliably at commercial scale are two different challenges. Although AI tools are helping researchers explore potential drug candidates more quickly, manufacturing many advanced therapies still involves complicated processes that require careful human supervision.
Cell therapies, gene therapies and other biologic medicines can involve multiple stages, specialized equipment and tightly controlled production environments. Some steps require precise timing, repeated handling and strict quality controls.
Manual processes can increase labor requirements and create additional opportunities for contamination during transfers between instruments.
Multiply Labs is developing robotic systems intended to automate these repetitive steps while maintaining the controlled conditions required for pharmaceutical manufacturing.
How Multiply Labs' Robotic Systems Work
The company builds robotic clusters that connect with pharmaceutical manufacturers' existing instruments and production processes.
Instead of requiring a drugmaker to replace an entire facility, the systems are designed to integrate with equipment already installed at a manufacturing site.
Within an enclosed production environment, robotic systems can handle timed and repetitive tasks across multiple stages of a manufacturing workflow. This approach is intended to reduce manual handoffs and improve consistency.
The company describes its platform as an example of Physical AI, where intelligent software and robotics interact with the physical world rather than operating only inside digital applications.
Focus on Cell and Gene Therapies
Multiply Labs initially focused on automating manufacturing processes for cell and gene therapies. These treatments can involve highly specialized biological materials and production steps that are difficult to scale using conventional methods.
The company is now expanding its platform to support a wider range of advanced biologic medicines, including antibodies, viral vectors and messenger RNA, commonly known as mRNA, therapies.
These technologies play important roles across modern medicine, including certain cancer treatments, genetic disease research and vaccine development.
Automation could help manufacturers increase production capacity and make complex manufacturing workflows easier to manage. However, each process must still meet applicable regulatory requirements and undergo appropriate validation before being used for commercial production.
AstraZeneca Is Among the Company's Investors
The participation of established pharmaceutical and technology companies gives Multiply Labs access to an investor network with experience in drug development, manufacturing and automation.
AstraZeneca participated in the latest funding round. The company has also been working with Multiply Labs to evaluate robotic systems for cell therapy manufacturing.
Teradyne, which has experience in robotics and industrial automation, also participated in the round.
These investments reflect growing interest in technologies that connect advanced computing with physical production systems.
Nevertheless, investment from a pharmaceutical company does not mean that every medicine produced with the technology has received regulatory approval or that the system is already deployed across the investor's entire manufacturing network.
Company Reports Lower Production Costs
Multiply Labs says its robotic platform can reduce cost per dose by 74% and deliver up to 100 times the throughput of manual manufacturing processes.
These figures are claims reported by the company and should not be interpreted as independently verified results across all drugs, factories or manufacturing conditions.
Actual savings will depend on the type of medicine, production volume, equipment costs, validation requirements and the complexity of the manufacturing process.
Even so, the potential to reduce labor-intensive steps makes pharmaceutical robotics an important area to watch as manufacturers seek to scale advanced therapies.
Why This Matters for Expensive Treatments
Some advanced therapies require complex production processes and substantial resources. Personalized cell treatments, for example, may involve manufacturing material specifically for an individual patient.
Automating parts of these processes could help manufacturers increase throughput and reduce certain production expenses.
However, manufacturing automation alone cannot determine the final price of a medicine. Research and development costs, clinical trials, regulatory obligations, intellectual property, distribution and healthcare reimbursement also affect what patients ultimately pay.
The potential benefit is therefore not an immediate guarantee of cheaper medicines, but an opportunity to improve the efficiency and scalability of production.
Moving From Clinical Deployments to Commercial Scale
Multiply Labs intends to use the new funding to expand its manufacturing capabilities and advance its technology toward larger commercial deployments.
This transition is important because pharmaceutical equipment must demonstrate consistent performance, reliable documentation and compliance with manufacturing standards before it can support regulated production at scale.
Drugmakers also need confidence that automated systems can work reliably with their existing instruments and validated procedures.
The company's progress will depend on its ability to install more systems, demonstrate repeatable results and build long-term relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Physical AI Is Expanding Beyond Data Centers
Much of the recent AI boom has focused on chatbots, software agents and powerful computing infrastructure. Physical AI is extending the technology into machines that perform tasks in real-world environments.
Examples include industrial robots, autonomous vehicles, warehouse automation and robotic systems for scientific research and manufacturing.
In pharmaceutical production, AI-enabled robotics could help coordinate complicated workflows, reduce repetitive manual work and improve the consistency of manufacturing operations.
The opportunity is especially significant in areas where production processes involve expensive materials, controlled environments and multiple interconnected stages.
Competition in Robotic Biomanufacturing
Multiply Labs operates in an emerging market that includes companies developing automated manufacturing systems and robotics for cell and gene therapies.
Different companies use different approaches. Some are developing centralized automated factories, while Multiply Labs focuses on robotic systems that can be installed within pharmaceutical manufacturers' existing facilities.
The distributed approach could appeal to manufacturers that want greater control over their production infrastructure and do not want to move manufacturing to an external provider.
However, the company must demonstrate that its systems can deliver reliable results across different production environments and types of medicines.
What Comes Next for Multiply Labs?
The $75 million Series B gives Multiply Labs additional capital to develop its platform, expand its team and move toward broader commercial deployment.
The company is targeting manufacturing processes for cell therapies, gene therapies, antibodies, viral vectors and mRNA products.
Its future progress will depend on successful integration with existing pharmaceutical equipment, regulatory compliance, customer adoption and evidence that robotic systems can deliver consistent manufacturing performance.
A New Chapter for AI in Medicine
Multiply Labs' funding highlights an important shift in the healthcare technology industry. AI is not only being used to help researchers discover potential treatments; companies are also developing machines to help manufacture those treatments.
If robotic manufacturing systems can operate reliably at scale, they could help pharmaceutical companies increase production capacity and manage complex biological processes more efficiently.
The latest investment does not guarantee that medicines will immediately become cheaper or that every manufacturing challenge will be solved. However, it provides Multiply Labs with additional resources to advance a technology that could become increasingly important as advanced therapies move toward wider use.
As AI and robotics continue to converge, the future of medicine may depend not only on discovering better treatments but also on developing more efficient ways to produce them.
Journalist: Vijay Singh