Terray Therapeutics Files for IPO Following $120M Series B to Advance AI-Driven Small Molecule Drug Discovery

Oct 30, 2024 09:00 CST Updated 09:00

Terray Therapeutics

AI Drug Discovery Developer

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On October 17, artificial intelligence drug discovery developer Terray Therapeutics secured $120 million in Series B funding, led by new investor Bedford Ridge Capital and existing investor NVentures, with participation from Maverick Capital, Goldcrest Capital, Madrona Ventures, and others. The funds will advance internal projects into clinical trials and further enhance Terray’s integrated AI platform, tNova, which supports both internal and collaborative projects.

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Terray Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in California, USA. It is an AI-driven drug discovery developer dedicated to transforming the way experiments and computational work are conducted. Terray Therapeutics' vision is to revolutionize the discovery and development process of small molecule drugs by leveraging advanced data science and artificial intelligence technologies to increase speed, reduce costs, and improve success rates.

To date, the company has completed four rounds of financing totaling $200 million:

Terray Therapeutics is one of many startups attempting to leverage AI technology to improve the speed and efficiency of drug development.These companies use AI to identify useful patterns from complex data, thereby recommending potentially effective drug candidates. Compared with traditional drug development, AI-driven methods can significantly reduce time and cost.

When faced with the vast number of small molecules that can be synthesized, the challenge in drug discovery lies in how to effectively search for and identify molecules with specific functions. To address this issue, Terray Therapeutics first utilizes diversity-oriented libraries to gain an initial understanding of the chemical landscape of the target. These libraries consist of easily synthesizable bicyclic molecules, which not only provide room for subsequent optimization efforts but also maintain drug-like properties. Next, iterative focused libraries are synthesized to enable rapid exploration of millions of molecules in search of promising hit compounds. Through this approach, the resolution of the search is enhanced, allowing for more precise targeting of regions containing promising compounds.

Beyond simple molecule generation and property prediction, Terray Therapeutics' generative optimization algorithms employ more advanced techniques. By utilizing latent diffusion and kinetic methods to sample the non-combinatorial chemical space, it aids in identifying maxima within the property space across vast chemical landscapes. This approach not only enhances the efficiency of discovering effective molecules but also increases the likelihood of identifying novel drug candidates. Through this integrated strategy, Terray Therapeutics can efficiently search and identify molecules with therapeutic potential among numerous small molecules.

01 AI Platform tNova

Terray's experimental platform tNova is designed for generative AI-driven drug discovery, and through the close integration of chemical experiments and computations, it can explore molecules and targets at an unprecedented scale.The platform integrates ultra-high-throughput experiments, generative AI, biology, medicinal chemistry, automation, and nanotechnology to address current unsolved challenges in drug development.

Key Steps

Design（Design）: Using a dataset of over 4.5 billion target-ligand binding measurements, generative AI aids in designing new molecules.

Synthesis (Make): Millions of new library molecules are added each week, with the total number of library molecules exceeding 160 million.

Test: Capable of screening 2 million molecules against targets within four minutes, significantly accelerating the screening process.

Analyze: Process 50TB of image data daily, converting it into target-ligand binding affinity data to quickly identify effective molecules.

The tArray technology of the tNova platform synthesizes molecules on nanoparticles and labels them with DNA barcodes. These nanoparticles are then fixed on a chip containing 32 million wells. Target-ligand binding is rapidly measured through fluorescence intensity, providing high-precision binding affinity data. The high-throughput biological testing technology resynthesizes effective molecules at a microscale and further evaluates other critical biological properties. The platform’s tCompute technology processes up to 25TB of data daily, converting it into actionable target-ligand binding data. A multimodal contrast pre-training model is used to understand and explore chemical space.

The tNova platform significantly improves the efficiency and success rate of drug discovery through data scale and high-throughput experimental methods.. Its platform can not only rapidly generate and screen millions of molecules, but also optimize designs through AI, effectively identifying promising molecules within the chemical space.

02 Business Model and Commercial Collaboration

Terray Therapeutics operates through a model that combines internal development with external collaboration.Terray Therapeutics is currently developing new drugs for lupus, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis, with plans to advance these drugs into clinical trials by 2026. The company has also established partnerships with several large pharmaceutical companies, applying its platform to a wide range of therapeutic targets, thereby expanding its commercial potential.

In October 2022, Terray Therapeutics announced a collaboration with Calico, a biotechnology organization focused on age-related interventions, to discover and develop small molecule therapies targeting aging-related diseases, including cancer.According to the terms of the agreement, Terray and Calico will use Terray's tNova platform to identify small molecule lead compounds for a set of targets nominated by Calico, and Calico will then be responsible for development and commercialization.

In December 2023, Terray Therapeutics announced a multi-target collaboration agreement with BMS (Bristol-Myers Squibb) to discover and develop small molecule therapies in certain disease areas.According to the terms of the agreement, Terray will use the tNova platform to discover and develop small molecule compounds for a set of targets designated by Bristol-Myers Squibb, after which Bristol-Myers Squibb will be responsible for development and commercialization. Terray will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for milestone payments associated with the achievement of preclinical, clinical, and sales milestones, as well as tiered royalties on net sales of commercialized products related to the collaboration.

In October 2024, Terray Therapeutics announced a collaboration with clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Odyssey Therapeutics to jointly discover and develop small molecule drugs targeting transcription factors.This collaboration combines Odyssey’s expertise in immunology and transcription factor biology with Terray Therapeutics' complementary expertise in immunology and the integrated AI platform tNova, which leverages large-scale proprietary experimental data to enhance its AI capabilities. The two companies will work together to develop first-in-class therapeutic candidates for high-interest targets, with potential applications in inflammatory diseases.

Author: Shuxia Liu

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