Odyssey Therapeutics Inc. closed a hefty $168 million series B round to progress multiple small-molecule and protein-based drug discovery and development programs in autoimmune disease and cancer.
It is now possible to look up the 3D structure of every known protein following the latest release of Alphafold, an open database run in partnership by Deepmind, the London-based artificial intelligence company owned by Google parent Alphabet and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge, U.K.
AI-enabled drug discovery company Insilico Medicine Ltd. has raised $60 million in a series D round to support expansion of its pipeline. The Hong Kong and New York-based company will use the proceeds to support clinical testing of its lead asset, a potential treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), as well as the advancement of its Pharma.AI platform.
Astrazeneca plc has signed up for more of the heavy-duty structure-based drug discovery services Proteros Biostructures GmbH specializes in, inking an extension to their existing collaboration agreement.
Pharma and tech companies including Amazon Inc., Astrazeneca plc, Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. Inc. and Teva Inc. are partnering with an innovation lab based in Israel to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) driven antibody discovery. Rehovot, Israel-based Aion Labs recently launched a venture hub for innovators and scientists from around the world.
Still reeling from the impact COVID-19 has had on its research activities and funding, Cancer Research UK is to launch a new organization combining all its drug discovery expertise in a single team, with a single portfolio, later this month.
Shouti Inc. has established subsidiary Basecamp Bio to navigate the complex challenges of membrane protein structure-based drug discovery. Using Shanghai and San Francisco-based Shouti’s drug discovery engine, Basecamp is intended to prosecute challenging drug discovery targets, including G-protein coupled receptors, and add new assets to Shouti’s development pipeline.
LONDON – Curve Therapeutics Ltd. has gone straight from £4.5 million (US$6.1 million) in startup funding to signing a $1.7 billion drug discovery agreement with Merck & Co. Inc. The deal will see Curve apply its mammalian cell discovery technology to five oncology and neuroscience targets nominated by Merck.
