ProteinQure, a computational peptide therapeutics company, announced the closing of an $11 million Series A financing round. The funding round was led by Tom Williams of Heron Rock Fund, with participation from Golden Ventures, Kensington Capital, and select returning investors. This brings ProteinQure’s total funding to $16 million across seed and Series A rounds.
The upcoming multicenter phase 1 clinical trial is anticipated to open in the third quarter of 2025 with planned enrollment of 70-100 patients across Canada and the US at renowned cancer centers, including Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Yale Cancer Center.
How the funding will be used: The proceeds will support the initiation of the company’s first clinical trial for PQ203, a first-in-class peptide-drug conjugate for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and the advancement of additional pipeline programs in neurology and nephrology.
PQ203: ProteinQure’s lead candidate PQ203 is a first-in-class peptide-drug conjugate designed to target the sortilin receptor, which is overexpressed in many solid tumors, including TNBC. And the drug is being developed for tumors resistant to topoisomerase I inhibitors (e.g., antibody-drug conjugates like Trodelvy), based on robust preclinical evaluation in patient-derived xenograft models.
KEY QUOTES:
“With this financing, we’re advancing what we believe to be the first AI-designed peptide therapeutic into the clinic. It’s a defining moment for ProteinQure and for the field. The support from new and returning investors allows ProteinQure to advance a new class of medicines that underscores the strength of our platform. With this foundation in place, we’re ready to generate clinical validation of how our next-generation peptide design platform can unlock previously unreachable targets and tissues.”
Lucas Siow, CEO and co-founder of ProteinQure
“We’re witnessing the birth of a new drug class – AI-engineered peptide therapeutics – and ProteinQure is at the forefront. Ever since leading the pre-seed round of ProteinQure, I believed that ProteinQure’s approach to building both proprietary data libraries and learning models would advantage the Company in a world where AI played a significant role in the drug discovery process. Heron Rock’s decision to lead the Series A was an easy one: ProteinQure has demonstrated true platform capabilities for designing non-canonical peptide therapeutics with exceptional specificity and drug-like properties and they’ve gone from concept-to-clinic with remarkable capital efficiency.”
Tom Williams of Heron Rock Fund
