The funds will be used to tackle undruggable targets
BEIJING, Feb. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- neoX Biotech, a next-generation biotech company specializing in computational design for novel drug research and development, recently announced that it had raised US$30 million in Series A funding. The financing was co-led by Sky9 Capital and 5Y Capital (formerly known as Morningside Venture Capital), with participation from BAI Capital and Vertex Ventures alongside existing investors Vision Plus Capital and Sequoia Capital China.
The funds will be mainly used to enhance its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven novel drug R&D platform, accelerate the preclinical development of several new medicine pipelines and expand international business cooperation.
neoX's value creation in AI-enabled new drug R&D is based on the underlying computable logic of biological systems and drug action. With this guiding principle in mind in tandem with the goal of studying and characterizing protein-protein interactions (PPI), the company has developed a sophisticated innovative drug R&D platform that integrates AI, biophysics and high-throughput experiments. neoX has achieved demonstrable preclinical progress in several innovative drug pipelines derived from this platform, with the expectation of soon producing some first-in-class and best-in-class drugs. In 2020, neoX garnered the Best Innovation award from MIT Technology Review China for major technological breakthroughs in new drug research and development.
"We are focusing on cutting-edge drug modalities, such as multispecific molecules and biologics," said Dr. Michael Chen, co-founder and CEO of neoX, "We use our next-generation neoPlatform to design new drug modalities and to truly 'think out of the box', in an effort to address undruggable targets."
In terms of bispecific molecules commonly used for protein degradation technology, through an in-depth study of PPI, neoX can accurately predict the ternary complex of target protein, bispecific molecule and ubiquitin ligase, gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the biophysical principles of protein action and degradation, and enable efficient design, screening and iterative optimization of protein degradation drugs. In the field of macromolecular drugs, Dr. Chen said that neoX designs and develops nanobodies, multispecific antibodies and neoantigen-T cell receptors.
With its leading interdisciplinary novel drug R&D platform, neoX is expected to conquer the pain point of undruggable targets while accelerating the research and development of innovative drugs, in a move to meet unmet clinical needs and eventually bring innovative therapeutics to patients.
Contact: info@neoxbiotech.com
