Peptilogics Closes $35.4 Million Series B Financing to Further Advance Proprietary Computational Peptide Drug Design and Discovery Platform

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Peptilogics announced today the closing of a $35.4 million Series B financing. The financing was led by Presight Capital, with participation from a new investor syndicate including Founders Fund as well as from existing investor Peter Thiel. The proceeds of the financing will be used to expand Peptilogics' computational platform and invest in technologies to improve its drug design engine, as well as accelerate development of a pipeline of peptide therapeutics including the Company's lead clinical asset, PLG0206, which has demonstrated first-in-class safety and best-in-class efficacy.

"We are thrilled to have the support of this visionary investor syndicate to accelerate our growth," said Jonathan Steckbeck, PhD, MBA, Founder and CEO of Peptilogics. "Our goal is to enable the industry by unlocking the full potential of peptides through the development of technologies that facilitate the rapid design of more effective therapeutics."

Presight Capital co-founder Christian Angermayer said, "We are building the world's leading discovery and development platform for peptides, as we believe some of the world's most impactful medicines in the future will be peptides."

Peptilogics unites proven drug development expertise with proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning methods to resolve the challenges with efficiency and accuracy that the industry's existing high throughput screening-based discovery methods have not been able to address. Peptilogics' computational platform finds connections among diverse biomedical data from across the entire drug development spectrum to map a new universe of peptide sequences. Having learned the design language that governs peptide function, the platform then generates novel, optimized therapeutics that align with a desired target drug profile and which are specifically engineered to treat diseases from diverse indications.

"Peptilogics' approach challenges traditional drug discovery methods by starting with a defined target drug profile and working backwards to design optimal, novel molecules," said Fabian Hansen from Presight Capital. "We believe that scalable rational design, not random screening, is the future of drug discovery and Peptilogics is well-positioned to lead the way."

About Peptilogics 
Peptilogics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that designs and develops novel peptide therapeutics. Through their computational platform, Peptilogics is radically altering drug discovery by not only uncovering new, previously unexplored chemical design space, but ensuring that each potential therapeutic is biologically viable and scalable to manufacture. Peptilogics' lead clinical stage peptide therapeutic, PLG0206, is a novel, broad-spectrum anti-infective that has been granted FDA Orphan Drug Designation and Qualified Infectious Disease Product Designation for its initial focus on the treatment of prosthetic joint infections, an unmet medical need. More information on Peptilogics can be found at www.peptilogics.com as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Presight Capital

Presight Capital is the international venture capital fund of entrepreneur and investor Christian Angermayer. Presight takes a global approach to early-stage investment opportunities across the frontier technology & biotechnology space. Presight is managed by two general partners Christian Angermayer and Fabian Hansen, and their limited partners are – in addition to Christian's Family Office Apeiron as an anchor investor – primarily entrepreneurs and investors, who contribute their respective networks and experience. Presight has been at the forefront of biotechnology investments and behind some of the most iconic recent life science companies including AbCellera, Compass Pathways, ATAI, Alloy, Rational Vaccines, Deciduous, EnClear, ChemomAb, Sensei, and Angiex.

About Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, as well as the first outside investor in Facebook. Thiel's investment initiatives and entrepreneurial endeavors span genre-defining companies across a variety of industries, including biotechnology companies such as Compass Pathways, ATAI, and AbCellera.

About Founders Fund
Founders Fund invests in the world's most important and valuable companies across all sectors and stages. The firm's partners have been founders and early funders of companies including PayPal, SpaceX, Palantir, Airbnb, Stripe, and Facebook. Founders Fund pursues a founder-friendly investment strategy, providing maximum support with minimum interference. More information is available at www.foundersfund.com.

SOURCE Peptilogics