December 21, 2020
Peptilogics announced today the closing of a $35.4 million Series B financing. The financing was led by Presight Capital, with participation from a new investor syndicate including Founders Fund as well as from existing investor Peter Thiel.
Peptilogics reports the proceeds of the financing will be used to expand Peptilogics’ computational platform and invest in technologies to improve its drug design engine, as well as accelerate the development of a pipeline of peptide therapeutics including the Company’s lead clinical asset, PLG0206, which has demonstrated first-in-class safety and best-in-class efficacy.
“We are thrilled to have the support of this visionary investor syndicate to accelerate our growth,” said Jonathan Steckbeck, PhD, MBA, Founder and CEO of Peptilogics. “Our goal is to enable the industry by unlocking the full potential of peptides through the development of technologies that facilitate the rapid design of more effective therapeutics.”
Presight Capital co-founder Christian Angermayer said, “We are building the world’s leading discovery and development platform for peptides, as we believe some of the world’s most impactful medicines in the future will be peptides.”
Peptilogics unites proven drug development expertise with proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning methods to resolve the challenges with efficiency and accuracy that the industry’s existing high throughput screening-based discovery methods have not been able to address. Peptilogics’ computational platform finds connections among diverse biomedical data from across the entire drug development spectrum to map a new universe of peptide sequences. Having learned the design language that governs peptide function, the platform then generates novel, optimized therapeutics that align with a desired target drug profile and which are specifically engineered to treat diseases from diverse indications.
“Peptilogics’ approach challenges traditional drug discovery methods by starting with a defined target drug profile and working backwards to design optimal, novel molecules,” said Fabian Hansen from Presight Capital. “We believe that scalable rational design, not random screening, is the future of drug discovery and Peptilogics is well-positioned to lead the way.”