Biotech Startups Aiding Research Score Funding

"Venture capitalists are financing startups seeking to increase the number of molecular targets for drugmakers to pursue, potentially enabling new treatments for cancer and other diseases.

Many drugs work by inhibiting proteins involved in a disease. But the number of proteins accessible to drugmakers is limited because most disease-associated proteins are considered "undruggable," meaning scientists have been unable to develop compounds against them, investors and entrepreneurs said.

Startups tackling this problem have raised venture capital recently, including drugmakers Terremoto Biosciences Inc. and ProFound Therapeutics Inc. and research-instrument developer Pleno Inc.

"There's always been a long list of targets that have defied our ability to provide effective therapeutic solutions," said Peter Thompson, co-founder and chief executive of Terremoto and a general partner of Terremoto investor OrbiMed Advisors LLC.

South San Francisco, Calif.-based Terremoto says it can discover drugs against a wide range of proteins, including those thought to be undruggable. Its drugs are designed to form strong, covalent bonds -- bonds formed between atoms through the sharing of electrons -- to target proteins.

Noncovalent drugs bind to target proteins but can fall off them, according to Dr. Thompson. Covalent drugs don't fall off as easily and can disable a protein target for long periods, he said. This could enable the company, which has raised a $75 million Series A round of financing led by OrbiMed and Third Rock Ventures, to develop selective and potent drugs for cancer and other conditions, according to Dr. Thompson.

Meantime, San Diego-based Pleno has secured $15 million in seed financing to develop an instrument platform used to detect various targets in a biological sample. The instrument could be used for purposes such as biological research, diagnostics and uncovering drug targets, according to CEO Pieter van Rooyen.

Pleno expects to make its instruments widely available to customers in late 2023, Mr. van Rooyen said." [1]

1. Biotech Startups Aiding Research Score Funding
Gormley, Brian. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 27 May 2022: B.4.