Pepticom set to develop AI models enabling peptide-based drug discovery

The Israeli company announced the closing of its Series A funding at $5m (€4.49m) from the Chartered Group investment firm, which is expected to use the funds to enable further development of artificial intelligence (AI) models that can be used in peptide drug discovery. According to the company, the pharmaceutical industry has recently shown an increased interest in peptide R&D, leading to a resurgence of peptide drug candidates for various indications, since the molecules can be'highly selective and efficacious, as well as relatively safe'. The AI technology developed by Pepticom aims to streamline and accelerate researcher's discovery of peptide-based drug candidates, compared to traditional methods which are'costly and time consuming', the company stated. Discovery is achieved "by searching an enormous set of possible solutions, vastly reducing the risk of failure during development." More specifically, the technology covers a chemical space of 1,030 possible molecular options, which is larger than current screening techniques.