Cyclica raises $23 million to accelerate drug discovery with AI

Cyclica, a biotechnology company leveraging AI to accelerate drug discovery, today announced that it raised $23 million. It will use the proceeds to advance its platforms and bolster its commercial plans, according to CEO Naheed Kurji, including growing a pipeline of pre-clinical and clinical assets and pursuing segments like agrochemicals. Traditionally, the design of small molecule therapies -- therapies incorporating chemical probes that aren't useful as drugs, but that inhibit or promote the function of specific proteins -- has focused on disease-associated protein targets. But once a drug enters the body, it interacts with dozens, if not hundreds, of proteins before it is eliminated, and these interactions can impact safety or lead to repurposing opportunities. Moreover, despite how useful chemical probes are, only 4% of human proteins have a known chemical probe available.