How Will AI Drug Discovery Grow by 2027?
Minimum triple-digit growth sets the company’s AI orders to surge from ~$25M in FY25 to at least $100M by FY27.
Twist Bioscience Corporation said on August 3 that it expects to meet or exceed its prior guidance of triple-digit percentage order growth in AI-enabled drug discovery for fiscal 2026. The synthetic DNA manufacturer also said it expects to repeat that triple-digit order growth in fiscal 2027, citing customer demand and its current sales funnel.
The company's platform supports customers who use artificial intelligence to computationally generate thousands to millions of potential DNA sequences. Those digital designs are then translated into physical biology through high-throughput DNA synthesis and protein expression, according to Twist. The company said many customers also use its downstream capabilities to evaluate resulting proteins for binding, developability and other characteristics relevant to drug candidates.
Twist said its AI-enabled drug discovery customer base has broadened over the past year. The company said it now serves large pharmaceutical firms, dry lab biotech companies, traditional biotech firms and technology companies pursuing therapeutic discovery through AI-driven approaches.
Order Growth in Dollar Terms
In their recent earnings call an analyst estimated that Twist's AI-related orders totaled approximately $25 million in fiscal 2025 and calculated that applying minimum triple-digit percentage growth across fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027 would put AI-related orders at a minimum of roughly $50 million and at least approximately $100 million, respectively. Emily Leproust, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Twist Bioscience, confirmed the calculation.
Leproust said existing AI-focused customers are also expanding into new antibody formats. "You might see people coming in with just a VHH and then expanding to a full IgG," she said, adding that adoption for bispecific antibody discovery is expected to follow.
Leproust said customers are increasingly engaging directly with Twist's scientific leadership as orders have grown in scale, including with the company's Chief Scientific Officer, Colby Souders. She described this as a shift from being viewed as "just a DNA provider or just a sequence provider" to a deeper scientific partner.
Adam Laponis, Chief Financial Officer of Twist Bioscience, said orders and revenue recognition for AI drug discovery projects are now more closely aligned than they were a year earlier, and he expects that alignment to continue into fiscal 2027.
Leproust addressed competition from GenScript's TurboCHO platform, saying she does not believe GenScript has comparable data capacity and capabilities, based on the protein expression and data characterization capabilities Twist has built over the past 18 months.
Therapeutics revenue, which includes AI-enabled drug discovery activity, reached $40.4 million in the third quarter, up 49% year over year.
Twist said it expects AI-enabled drug discovery to remain a durable growth driver for the company across the short, medium and long term.
Key Takeaways
- Expect triple-digit growth in AI drug discovery orders, rising from $25 million in FY25 to $100 million by FY27.
- Broadening customer base includes large pharma, biotech firms, and technology companies leveraging AI for drug discovery.
- Customers are expanding into new antibody formats, highlighting increased engagement with Twist's scientific leadership.
- Twist's platform enables computational generation and evaluation of DNA sequences for drug candidate development.