While New Hope-based BioLeap does not consider itself a traditional drug discovery company, it is showing all the traditional earmarks of game-changing success. It just secured a $5 million Series A financing round from Quaker BioVentures and Adams Capital Management. That news came on the heels of contracts with GlaxoSmithKline to design lead compounds for difficult drug targets and Lycera Cop. To develop novel small-molecule scaffolds for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
The financing will support business development and the company’s continued development of its computational fragment-based drug design technology, while Quaker provides major experience in biotech and pharma and Adams has had success in software development.
“It’s not easy to convince big pharma of newer technologies,” says BioLeap CEO David Pompliano. “There’s a period of time when you have to prove yourself and how your technology is truly different and we were able to do that.”
The company was founded in 2004 by chief technical officer John L. Kulp Jr. and Gerry Evans, executive vice president. BioLeap’s hypothesis-driven method is different than random screening approaches in that it is particularly effective for designing and improving lead compounds for difficult targets where traditional methods have failed. Its methodology conceptualizes molecules and predicts their relative binding affinity to a target protein. The company works at multiple levels; it creates novel compounds with intellectual property protection, enhances the IP estate around existing compounds, avoids obstructive patents and generates fast-follower compounds for early market entry.
“We narrow the field of molecules that are logical to make and that cuts down on work enormously,” says Pompliano.
Source: David Pompliano, BioLeap
Writer: Joe Petrucci