AI drug discovery company DeepCure, which is developing novel, small molecule therapeutics, announced today the closing of a $40 million Series A financing round led by Morningside Ventures, with participation from existing investors TLV Partners, Sapir Venture Partners, and Benon Group Ltd. The company has raised $47 million to date.
The company is developing novel preclinical candidates in various "undruggable" classes, ranging from polypharmacology programs to protein-protein interactions and previously "impossible" specificity challenges critical in various indications in areas of high unmet medical need. With shorter timelines to develop the highest-quality drug candidate, DeepCure’s technology ensures the discovery and development of novel, small molecule drugs that were previously undiscoverable using conventional methods.
DeepCure cofounder and CEO Kfir Schreiber said, "We have made tremendous progress since founding DeepCure a few years ago, and this financing reflects strong support for our technology platform, people, strategy, and most importantly, our mission to accelerate the discovery of novel targets and therapies which were previously undruggable."
The latest investment will be used to expand DeepCure’s pipeline with five additional oncology programs and develop an automated robotic wet lab to fulfill its vision of developing drugs that are fully designed, synthesized, and tested by AI. The funding will also be used to double the company's team of drug discovery scientists and technologists next year, including a global expansion with the launch of two new sites in Greece and Israel.
"This investment positions us to advance our first novel small molecule compound to file for IND, advance our pipeline and realize our vision of making a significant impact for patients," added Joseph Jacobson, Ph.D., CSO and cofounder, DeepCure.
"We scan our entire proprietary molecular database for optimal drug candidates for each discovery program, with all of our state-of-the-art in-house AI property models simultaneously. Thus, our approach increases the effective search space beyond what was currently possible, either computationally or experimentally," added Thrasyvoulos Karydis, Deep Cure CTO & cofounder.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 8, 2021.
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