Inception Sciences, Versant’s first Discovery Engine, was founded in San Diego in 2011. The initial goal of Inception was to translate new opportunities from U.S. academics into industry-quality therapeutic candidates. Inception has now grown to about 70 highly trained drug discovery scientists across sites that include Montreal, Vancouver and San Diego.

To date, Inception Sciences has launched seven companies that collectively have received more than $135 million in research funding commitments from pharma partners.