For proteins to function properly, they must take on the right shape. Misfolded proteins are the root of many diseases. Congruence Therapeutics is using computational tools to discover and develop drugs that stabilize problem proteins and it’s now out of stealth with $50 million in funding.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
The Series A round of funding announced Tuesday was led by Amplitude Ventures and Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
Montreal-based Congruence uses mathematical modeling, physics, and machine learning to characterize the defects of misfolded proteins. The company’s platform technology, called Revenir, designs small molecules that can rescue these mutated proteins—research that is all done on computers. The biotech contends its approach can discover and design novel small molecule stabilizers faster and at scale compared to traditional drug discovery methods.
Congruence was founded last year by CEO Clarissa Desjardins, who was the founder and former chief executive of Montreal-based Clementia Pharmaceuticals. In 2019, Ipsen acquired Clementia and its lead program, a drug for a rare bone disease. Congruence has not disclosed the therapeutic areas it aims to address, other than to say it is pursuing indications with high unmet medical need. Concurrent with that research, Congruence said it is also building a database housing the biophysical properties of mutated proteins, which can be used to develop stabilizes for diseases caused by proteins that are outside of the company’s focus.
“Our industry faces a watershed moment where the application of novel computational tools, including machine learning, is poised to disrupt traditional drug discovery,” Desjardins said in a prepared statement.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Congruence said it will use the new funding to build up its drug hunting team. In addition to the financing, Congruent announced that Kenneth Valenzano has been appointed chief scientific officer. Valenzano was most recently senior vice president of drug discovery at Amicus Therapeutics, a rare disease drug developer whose first commercialized product, Galafold, is a small molecule designed to stabilize a key enzyme as a way of treating Fabry disease, an inherited metabolic disorder. At Amicus, Valenzano was involved in the discovery and development of Galafold and other small molecules.
Other disclosed investors participating in the funding round include Lumira Ventures, Investissement Quebec, OrbiMed Advisors, Driehaus Capital Management.
Photo: Andrzej Wojcicki, Getty Images
