INSIGHTS / News

The University of Southampton spin-out and pharmaceutical company will use the recent investment to begin clinical trials of its Microcycle platform.  

Curve Therapeutics is working to develop new drugs for difficult-to-address cancer targets with its novel screening platform, Microcycle. The gene-encoded platform enables cyclic peptides – an amino acid commonly used in the targeting of cancerous cells – to be enriched in mammalian cells. This reaction then produces a signal to let researchers know how the peptide interacted with the target cell. 

The funding round was led by Pfizer Ventures with participation from Columbus Venture Partners and British Patient Capital, which joined founding investors Advent Life Sciences and Epidarex Capital.

The SETsquared-supported company, which is now based at the University of Southampton Science Park, is working to deliver a revolutionary intracellular screening platform to discover novel therapeutics to address complex diseases. A droplet microfluidic system is the next generation of the Microcycle library within a single femtolitre liquid droplet.

Dr Simon Kerry, CEO, Curve Therapeutics said, “This financing will enable us to expand our team, progress our lead assets into the clinic and expand our drug discovery platform. We welcome our new investors alongside our existing strong syndicate and look forward to working together to take Curve to its next stage of growth.”

Professor Ali Tavassoli, CSO, added, “Curve’s Microcycle platform is a powerful tool for drug discovery, enabling an unparalleled. Advantage in the discovery of functional hits and leads. We look forward to maximising the potential of our platform to further develop a rich pipeline of programmes with the potential to treat unmet clinical needs in a diverse range of diseases, including cancer.”

Marie-Claire Peakman, Partner, Pfizer Ventures, commented: “We are delighted to have led this financing and to work with great co-investors and leadership team. Curve’s platform provides an exciting new approach designed to tackle tough, high-priority targets which have been difficult to progress in the past. We are eager for the company to progress the platform with the goal of identifying new therapeutics for challenging diseases.”