TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ProteinQure Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering computational peptide therapeutics, announced today the close of an $11 million Series A financing round. 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. The financing 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.
“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,” said Lucas Siow, CEO and co-founder of ProteinQure. “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.”
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. 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.
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 United States at world-renowned cancer centers, including Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Yale Cancer Center.
“We’re witnessing the birth of a new drug class – AI-engineered peptide therapeutics – and ProteinQure is at the forefront,” said Mr. Williams. “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.”
About ProteinQure
ProteinQure is redefining peptide therapeutics with a drug discovery platform that goes beyond the limits of traditional drug design. At the core is ProteinStudio™, a proprietary platform that integrates machine learning, structural biology, and atomic-level simulations to design therapeutic peptides using thousands of non-natural amino acids, enabling tissue-specific delivery and access to novel target classes. From cytotoxic payloads to RNA delivery, our precision-designed peptides deliver diverse payloads and unlock previously inaccessible targets with broad potential across oncology, neurology, nephrology, and rare disease. Headquartered in Toronto, ProteinQure is advancing a robust internal pipeline and partnering with global biopharma to accelerate the future of programmable peptide medicines. For more information, visit www.proteinqure.com.
Contacts
Company: info@proteinqure.com
Media: Jessica Yingling, Ph.D., Little Dog Communications Inc., jessica@litldog.com
