Dive Brief:

简报：

PsiThera, a former Roivant Sciences subsidiary, announced Wednesday it raised $47.5 million in a Series A round to help develop its portfolio of tumor necrosis factor-targeting drug candidates.

PsiThera，前罗氏科学子公司，周三宣布在A轮融资中筹集了4750万美元，以帮助开发其肿瘤坏死因子靶向候选药物组合。

Once known as Psivant Therapeutics, the biotechnology company is using its proprietary artificial intelligence platform to find new molecules that can deliver biologic-like efficacy in an oral form.

这家生物技术公司曾用名“Psivant Therapeutics”，目前正在利用其专有的人工智能平台，寻找可以以口服形式提供类似生物制品疗效的新分子。

Its early backers include Lightstone Ventures and Samsara BioCapital, which co-led the venture capital round, as well as Roivant, YK Bioventures, and Eurofarma Ventures.

其早期支持者包括 Lightstone Ventures 和 Samsara BioCapital，它们共同领投了这一风险投资轮，还有 Roivant、YK Bioventures 和 Eurofarma Ventures。

Dive Insight:

潜水洞察：

Biologic medicines that target TNF, a protein involved in inflammation, changed the way many autoimmune conditions are treated. Drugs like Humira and Enbrel effectively combat a wide range of diseases and regularly earned billions of dollars annually. But they're also given via injections or infusions, and thus are more complicated to make and administer..

靶向TNF（一种参与炎症的蛋白质）的生物药物改变了多种自身免疫性疾病的治疗方式。像修美乐和恩利这样的药物能有效对抗广泛的疾病，每年常规收入数十亿美元。但它们需要通过注射或输液给药，因此制造和使用起来更加复杂。

PsiThera’s ambitions are to take those biologics and turn them into oral medications that are cheaper to produce and easier to take. The company is leaning on AI to find new ways to latch onto and block TNF, and believes it can make small molecules do so by predicting and simulating the minuscule ways that a protein changes its structure, also known as protein motion, said Woody Sherman, PsiThera’s founder and chief innovation officer..

PsiThera 的目标是将这些生物制剂转化为口服药物，从而降低生产成本并提高服用便利性。该公司正依靠人工智能寻找结合并阻断 TNF 的新方法，并相信通过预测和模拟蛋白质改变其结构的微小方式（也称为蛋白质运动），可以让小分子实现这一目标，PsiThera 创始人兼首席创新官伍迪·谢尔曼表示。

Woody Sherman is the founder and chief innovation officer of PsiThera, formerly known as Psivant Therapeutics.

伍迪·谢尔曼是PsiThera（前身为Psivant Therapeutics）的创始人兼首席创新官。

Permission granted by PsiThera

PsiThera 授权许可

Adding to PsiThera’s enthusiasm for what’s possible for a biologic in a pill was Monday’s data readout from Kymera Therapeutics, whose shares skyrocketed on the announcement that an oral protein degrader appeared safe and worked on an inflammation target.

周一，Kymera Therapeutics 公布的数据进一步激发了 PsiThera 对生物制剂以药丸形式实现的可能性的热情。该公司宣布一种口服蛋白质降解剂似乎安全且对炎症靶点有效，其股价因此飙升。

“There's been a growing number of examples over the course of the past 10 years of oral therapies for these previously intractable targets,” Sherman said.

“过去十年间，针对这些以前难以处理的靶点，口服疗法的例子越来越多，”谢尔曼说。

PsiThera claims its AI platform can shrink the time scientists spend finding a potential molecule to optimizing it for preclinical studies.

PsiThera声称其人工智能平台可以缩短科学家寻找潜在分子并将其优化用于临床前研究的时间。

Skeptics of AI-designed drugs, meanwhile, have been unconvinced that the technology can find high-quality medicines. The few that have made it to clinical testing, such as Recursion Pharmaceuticals’ neurovascular drug, have not demonstrated meaningful efficacy.

与此同时，人工智能设计药物的怀疑者们并不相信这项技术能够找到高质量的药物。少数进入临床试验的药物，如Recursion Pharmaceuticals的神经血管药物，并未显示出显著的疗效。

Sherman and PsiThera CEO Eric Shaff are aware of these reservations. Yet they maintain it’s still early days and that down the line, what may seem like a pipe dream for the future of AI drug discovery could become reality.

谢尔曼和 PsiThera 首席执行官埃里克·沙夫 (Eric Shaff) 了解这些疑虑。然而，他们坚持认为现在还为时过早，未来对于 AI 药物发现的未来可能看似遥不可及的梦想或许终将成真。

Eric Shaff is the CEO of PsiThera

埃里克·沙夫是PsiThera的首席执行官。

Permission granted by PsiThera

PsiThera 授权许可

“AI may change the game, but humans have an essential role in the process,” Shaff said.

“人工智能可能会改变游戏规则，但人类在这一过程中扮演着至关重要的角色，”沙夫说。

PsiThera broke off earlier this year from Roivant, which launched companies like

今年早些时候，PsiThera 从 Roivant 分离出来，Roivant 曾推出过许多公司，如

Telavant

特拉万特

and

和

Dermavant

德美凡特

as part of its “

作为其“的一部分

hub-and-spoke

中心辐射型

” biotech creation model.

”生物技术创造模型。

PsiThera

赛博治疗

was built around its drug discovery engine, Chaff said, and launched externally once it identified TNF as its first target.

Chaff表示，该平台围绕其药物发现引擎构建，并在确定TNF为首个目标后对外推出。

The company plans to select its lead program candidate next year.

公司计划明年选出其主导项目候选人。