Cambridge Spin-out PharmEnable Raises £1.8 million for Drug Discovery Expansion

• £1.8m seed financing led by Cambridge Enterprise alongside angel investors and life science investment funds
• Using advanced medicinal chemistry and AI approaches to develop highly complex and specific drug candidate molecules
• Will enable in-house drug discovery across a number of therapeutic areas including cancer and neurodegeneration
• Strategic partnerships to exploit full potential of its platform

30 June 2020, Cambridge UK

PharmEnable, a Cambridge-based drug discovery company using advanced medicinal chemistry and AI-enabled approaches to design the next generation of highly complex and specific drug candidate molecules, announces it has closed a £1.8 million seed financing to support its transition into a drug development company. It aims to develop new treatments for conditions with significant unmet clinical need, by designing highly complex molecules for addressing challenging biological targets.

The round, which was significantly over-subscribed, was led by Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, as well as the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund VI, managed by Parkwalk Advisors. It also attracted support from a wealth of angel investors and notable life science funds, including Jonathan Milner, serial entrepreneur and founder of Abcam; Andy Richards, Cambridge-based entrepreneur and investor; David Ford, Oxford-based life sciences angel investor; the family office of Paul Forster, co-founder of Indeed.com; Ian Tomlinson, chairman of several bio-incubators, entrepreneur and co- founder of Domantis; KQ Labs at the Francis Crick Institute; Martlet Capital, a Cambridge-based investor with a growing portfolio of innovative life science companies; the fast-growing o2h ventures Human Health EIS fund; and Wren Capital, the established London-based angel investor in science, engineering and software businesses.

A spin-out from the University of Cambridge in 2016, and financed to date by its founders and service-based revenues, PharmEnable will use the funding to evolve its business model and invest in a pipeline of drug discovery programmes across a number of disease areas including cancer and neurodegenerative disease. Additionally, PharmEnable will continue to engage in strategic partnerships with pharma, innovative biotechs and academia.

PharmEnable is led by co-founder and CEO Dr Hannah Sore. It has attracted an experienced Board and management team including Dr Jane Dancer, previously of F-star, who joined recently as the new Board Chair. The financing has enabled PharmEnable to expand its scientific team including Dr David Vidal as Director of Technology, with further expansion, including the addition of a Director of Drug Discovery planned for Q3 2020.

The PharmEnable platform technology can predict improved small molecule hits to targets across a range of disease areas. Its approach focuses on exploring and mapping the possible chemical universe and designing novel small molecules that are highly complex with shapes similar to those found in nature. This approach can identify hits with improved specificity compared with traditional screening methods, and allows PharmEnable to take on particularly challenging biological targets, such as protein-protein interactions and epitranscriptomic modifications that have been undruggable by existing approaches. Its solution consists of two elements: ChemUniverse a diversity-focused virtual database of chemically diverse molecules; and ChemSeek, a suite of gold standard AI-enabled tools for finding drug target matches from structure and ligand data.

Commenting on the financing, CEO of PharmEnable Dr. Hannah Sore said:

“We are pleased to welcome on board our new investors and appreciate their confidence in our business. Our aim is to replicate the specificity of biologics in the powerful and scalable form of a small molecule, to treat devastating diseases where there are currently no treatment options. We have proven the strength of our platform in tapping unexplored parts of the chemical universe to find novel and specific hits for currently undruggable targets, and are excited to now be able to invest in our own pipeline of drug discovery programmes, as well as to develop further strategic partnerships.”

 Dr Christine Martin, Head of Life Science Investment at Cambridge Enterprise said:

“Cambridge Enterprise is really pleased to be investing in this exciting opportunity. To have closed the round during these last few months, and to have attracted such a strong investor syndicate, is a testament to the potential of the AI-enabled platform that PharmEnable has built. We are pleased to support the Company in its transition to in-house drug discovery. We believe the company will have significant impact through addressing undruggable therapeutic targets.”

Following the investment, Dr Christine Martin, Head of Life Science Investment at Cambridge Enterprise and Peter McPartland, Investment Director of Martlet Capital and representative for all other investors, join the board of directors of PharmEnable, alongside Dr Jane Dancer (independent Chair), Dr Hannah Sore (CEO) Dr Natalia Mateu (CSO) and Gaynor Fryers (independent NED). David Ford also serves as a Board Observer for the entrepreneurs/angel investors.

Issued for and on behalf of PharmEnable by Charles Consultants
For more information, contact:

Media enquiries – Sue Charles, Charles Consultants, [email protected], +44 (0)7968 726585

At the Company – Dr Jelena Aleksic, CBO, PharmEnable, [email protected], +44 (0)7793 534121

About PharmEnable

PharmEnable is a Cambridge (UK) based drug discovery company, using a combination of medicinal chemistry and AI computational approaches to design the next generation of specific and cost-efficient small molecule drugs. Our mission is to discover new treatments for otherwise undruggable conditions.

CEO Dr Hannah Sore is a medicinal chemist by background, and has worked across academia and pharma, as well as having a successful business consulting career. In 2012, after being seriously ill from sepsis, Dr Sore left her consulting career to dedicate herself to creating new medicines. She assembled a team of Cambridge scientists and entrepreneurs, in order to create innovative solutions to some of the biggest healthcare challenges.

The PharmEnable platform focuses on creating chemical diversity, making potential new medicines that are 3-dimensional (3D) and inspired by nature. This innovative approach has all the advantages of small molecule drugs, in that the molecules can be produced cost efficiently in large quantities and taken by patients orally. In addition, the 3D structures make the molecules more specific and less likely to be toxic, opening up new possibilities for treating otherwise undruggable conditions. For more information, visit www.pharmenable.com

About Cambridge Enterprise

Part of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Enterprise supports academics, researchers, staff and students in achieving knowledge transfer and research impact. We do this by helping innovators, experts and entrepreneurs use commercial avenues to develop their ideas and expertise for the benefit of society, the economy, themselves and the University.
Liaising with organisations both locally and globally, we offer expert advice and support in commercialisation and social enterprise, including help with academic consultancy services, the protection, development and licensing of ideas, new company and social enterprise creation, and seed funding.
For more information, please visit: www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk