Ensem Therapeutics Secures Nearly $10 Million in Series A+ Financing to Advance Kinetic Ensemble® Platform and Oncology Pipeline

Investment界 (ID: pedaily2012) October 23rd news,Ensem Therapeutics (hereinafter referred to as "ENSEM")Announced the completion of the A+ round of financing, introducing several well-known technology, medical, and strategic investment institutions, including Legend Star, Boquan Capital, Magnesium Robotics, etc. Lightsource Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this round of financing.The proceeds from this round will continue to be used for the development of the Kinetic Ensemble® platform and pipeline advancement.

In April last year, ENSEM Therapeutics completed its incubation by CBC Group, while announcing the completion of a $67 million Series A financing round co-led by GGV Capital and Alibaba. Other investors included Pavilion Capital, Cenova Capital, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, Inc., and other well-known institutions. The above incubation and financing news of ENSEM Therapeutics was reported by Endpoints, the authoritative U.S. biotech media, and more than a year later, it received further support, reflecting the industry's recognition and backing of ENSEM Therapeutics' development prospects.

Ensem Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2021 by CBC Group and Dr. Shengfang Jin, a scientist in the life sciences and pharmaceutical fields. The company's core mission is to address the true pain points of industries such as pharmaceuticals during this technological turning point era—where Alphafold2 and several cutting-edge technologies (such as multi-dimensional NMR dynamic analysis) are revolutionizing protein folding and dynamic structural analysis—by applying transformative deep learning models and techniques to analyze the structure and motion of biomacromolecules, fundamentally empowering innovative drug discovery. Dr. Jin has successfully led teams as a core founding scientist at NASDAQ-listed Agios Pharmaceuticals to develop First-In-Class innovative drugs IDHIFA®, TIBSOVO®, and PYRUKYND®, which have received FDA approval for market release.

After more than two years of rapid development, ENSEM has applied state-of-the-art industrial-grade deep learning models in the pharmaceutical field to research globally recognized difficult cancer drug targets. It successfully predicted a dynamic pocket that the industry had never discovered before, which can significantly impact the activity and selectivity of drug molecules. Based on this dynamic pocket, ENSEM's world-class pharmaceutical team ultimately developed a global Best-In-Class small molecule candidate drug, which has officially entered the PCC preclinical IND-Enabling trial stage. Through head-to-head comparisons with U.S. Big Pharma competitors in preclinical in vitro, in vivo, and toxicology experiments, ENSEM’s PCC molecule demonstrated significant improvements in activity, selectivity, drug-likeness, and therapeutic window, thereby addressing issues such as poor drug-likeness and off-target effects of competing molecules.

Dr. Shengfang Jin, Co-founder & CEO of ENSEM Therapeutics, Inc., stated:"ENSEM, founded in the Alphafold2 era, is committed to applying world-leading deep learning models and several cutting-edge technologies to explore the structure and motion of biomacromolecules, thereby empowering innovative drug discovery. These advanced technologies can help predict or directly observe the dynamic structural ensembles of biomacromolecules at different time scales, identify hidden dynamic pockets on protein targets, and facilitate drug discovery for 'difficult-to-drug' targets. In the future, on the platform side, the company will continue to collaborate with industry shareholders for iterative improvements; in terms of pharmaceuticals, the company will remain dedicated to developing drug molecules of significant medical value to benefit more patients."

CBC Group CEO Fu Wei stated:"AI+Tech empowerment can break through bottlenecks that traditional experimental R&D methods in the pharmaceutical field cannot overcome. As early as 2020, we foresaw this significant trend and began incubating Ensem Therapeutics. In the large model era triggered by ChatGPT, Ensem Therapeutics has also started applying large biomedical models to the new drug R&D field. In the future, Ensem Therapeutics will continue to deepen its cooperation with industry and strategic shareholders, including large biomedical models, intelligent computing, and life science automation, thereby leading the development of global AI+Tech empowerment in the pharmaceutical field."

Qin Zheng, Executive Director of Alibaba Health Investment Department, said:"Tech + AI Model Empowering Pharmaceutical Companies to Breakthrough Numerous Previously Intractable Problems. Ensem Therapeutics Chooses to Leverage Large Biomedical Models and Alibaba's Underlying Computing Power (Intelligent Computing) to Assist in the Precise Capture of Dynamic Information of Target Proteins for New Drug Research and Development, Aiming to Predict 'Dynamic Conformational Ensembles.' These 'Metastable' Conformations, which have Biological Functions and Reside in Microsecond to Millisecond Timescales, are More Significant for Drug Design. Ensem Therapeutics’ Unique Kinetic Ensemble Technology Platform Integrates Molecular Simulations, AI Deep Learning, and Experimental Validation Based on Advanced Macromolecular Dynamics Technology, Reducing Animal Testing from 3 Years to 1 Year for Lead Compound Discovery, Fully Demonstrating Ensem Therapeutics’ Future Development Space and Potential. We Highly Recognize the Team Led by Dr. Jin Shengfang and Look Forward to Ensem Therapeutics Bringing Breakthrough Benefits to the Pharmaceutical Industry in the Field of Large Biomedical Models in the Rapidly Developing Era of AI + Techbio."

Lu Gang, partner of Legend Star, said:"From the perspective of the new pharmaceutical cycle and the current industry achievements, there is still vast room for exploration. Developing small molecules targeting new structural switches through AI combined with multidisciplinary technologies is a viable modality. ENSEM Therapeutics can organically integrate AI&Tech with small molecule drug discovery and achieve rapid implementation. The team has demonstrated top-tier strategic and execution capabilities. The company boasts a well-structured, internationally leading new drug R&D team. Under the leadership of Dr. Jin Shengfang, the team has successfully developed multiple innovative drugs. We remain optimistic about the company’s future development and hope to continuously iterate with the company, leverage the platform's value, and create more product pipelines that address unmet clinical needs."

Dr. Zhao Gong, Partner and Executive Director of Boquan Capital, stated:"In the AI&Tech era, how data and algorithms can empower innovative drug research and development while achieving their commercial value loop is both highly promising and extremely challenging, as well as very exciting. ENSEM Therapeutics has gathered a world-class team of new drug R&D, Tech&AI scientists centered around Dr. Jin Shengfang. Taking the less obvious dynamic pockets on 'difficult-to-drug protein targets' as the entry point, they develop innovative drug molecules. Currently, the first pipeline has entered the IND-Enabling trial stage, and the capability verification of AI+Tech empowered pharmaceuticals has been preliminarily completed. The profound understanding of the industry, innovation capabilities, and execution capabilities demonstrated by the ENSEM team are impressive. We look forward to accompanying the ENSEM team and continuously witnessing the company making more progress, benefiting more patients, empowering drug research and development, and leading the industry forward."

Magnus Technology founder and CEO Huang Yuqing said:"Artificial intelligence is leading the revolution in drug research and development, from predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins, to identifying drug targets, designing drug molecules with specific functions, and clinical trial design. AI plays an indispensable and crucial role in all these areas. ENSEM Therapeutics is an AI+TechBio company that we pay close attention to. They have a world-class AI algorithm team and a top-notch pharmaceutical scientist team, capable of utilizing AI and multi-dimensional NMR dynamic analysis technology to discover dynamic pockets on protein targets, and based on this, design innovative drug molecules with significant medical value. We are very pleased to collaborate with ENSEM Therapeutics to empower AI-driven innovative drug R&D. We believe that ENSEM Therapeutics will lead the global trend in the AI+TechBio field and make important contributions to human health."

Rui Hong, Executive Director of Lightsource Capital, said:"Introducing AI+Tech can break through bottlenecks that traditional experimental research methods in the life sciences field cannot overcome. ENSEM applies several cutting-edge deep learning algorithm models, combined with NMR dynamic resolution technology awarded by the National Academy of Sciences (US). Based on large biopharmaceutical models, customized underlying intelligent computing platforms, and automated systems, under the leadership of a top pharmaceutical team that set the world record for the fastest FDA approval, ENSEM has advanced its Lead pipeline to the IND-enabling stage within two years of establishment, rapidly overcoming the industry-recognized 'difficult drug target.' We highly recognize the foresight, execution, and entrepreneurial spirit of the ENSEM team, and are very honored to help the company successfully complete this round of financing. We look forward to the company working with partners to combine cutting-edge technology with applied scientific innovation, leading a new wave in drug development."