Peel Therapeutics Closes New Financing Round and Expands Board of Directors to Support Evolution-Based Medicines for Cancer and Inflammation

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Peel Therapeutics, an evolutionary-inspired, clinical-stage biotech company, announced recent company updates to support its drug development programs in cancer and inflammation. The company recently secured $9M in funding, bringing its total seed financing to $36M. The company also expanded its Board of Directors to support and guide the company through this rapid growth stage.

"Peel Therapeutics made meaningful strides over the past year – including initiating a Phase 1 clinical trial in advanced solid tumors to evaluate PEEL-224 – our small molecule that targets topoisomerase 1 activity and has been engineered to avoid chemoresistance. We are pleased to capitalize on these efforts, to serve those with cancer and inflammation," said Joshua Schiffman, M.D., CEO and Co-founder of Peel Therapeutics. "As we advance Peel's therapeutic pipeline to treat a spectrum of devastating conditions, we apply the team's scientific and medical expertise to rapidly translate evolutionary biology into treatments."

New Financing Secured
Peel Therapeutics has raised a total of $36M in seed financing, plus over $3M in non-dilutive capital including National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer funding. Most recently, the company closed a $9M SAFE financing round which will be used to advance clinical and pre-clinical programs.

Board of Directors Expanded
Ryan Watts, CEO, Denali Therapeutics and Carin Canale-Theakston, CEO, Evoke Canale joined the Peel Therapeutics Board of Directors, comprised of experts in medicine, science, technology, and business.

Ryan Watts is CEO and Co-founder of Denali Therapeutics. Under his leadership, Denali has advanced multiple therapeutic candidates into clinical testing for Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Watts has led efforts to raise significant capital to advance Denali's pipeline and has been instrumental in forging partnerships to accelerate the discovery and development of medicines for neurodegeneration.

"I am excited to be a part of Peel Therapeutics and their ground-breaking approach to engineer molecules in nature into drugs with significant impact for patients with cancer and inflammation." Watts says, "Joining as a Director is an opportunity to participate in Peel's next stage of growth."

Carin Canale-Theakston is a life science executive with more than 25 years of experience helping companies navigate business and communications. She has shaped strategies for more than 500 life science companies and has experience with companies of all sizes and stages, ranging from emerging biopharma startups and venture capital firms, to major diagnostic companies, to several of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.

Canale-Theakston comments, "Peel has impressed me with its meaningful nonclinical data coupled with their passion for helping patients, I am eager to work with the Peel team to help advance evolution-inspired drugs to the clinic."

About Peel Therapeutics
Peel Therapeutics is an evolutionary-inspired, clinical-stage biotech company that engineers nature better than evolution intended. Our team searches for nature's super abilities where evolutionary biology accomplished the inconceivable in preventing or defeating disease. We then apply multidisciplinary scientific and drug development expertise to rapidly translate this evolutionary biology into medicines. The company is advancing a therapeutic pipeline to treat a spectrum of devastating conditions, with a near-term focus on cancer and inflammation. At Peel Therapeutics, we push the limits of biology to develop highly effective and safe medicines for patients that transcend the incremental. "Peel" is the Hebrew word for elephant, our company originates from the natural cancer resistance found in elephants. 

Media Contact
Janine Bogris
Evoke Canale for Peel Therapeutics
[email protected] 

SOURCE PEEL Therapeutics