Recently, Ensem Therapeutics (hereinafter referred to as "ENSEM"), an AI biotechnology company, announced the completion of its Series A+ financing round, bringing in several well-known technology, healthcare, and strategic investment institutions, including Legendstar Capital, Shanghai Boquan Investment, and Suzhou Maga Technology Co., Ltd. The funds raised in this round will continue to be used for the development of the Kinetic Ensemble® platform and pipeline advancement.
It is reported that ENSEM 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 real pain points in industries such as pharmaceuticals during this era of technological turning points, 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 technologies to analyze the structure and motion of biomacromolecules, ENSEM aims to fundamentally empower innovative drug discovery.
When Ensem Therapeutics completed its incubation in April last year, it closed a $67 million Series A financing round co-led by GGV Capital and Alibaba, with other investors including Pavilion Capital, Cenova Capital, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, Inc., and other well-known institutions.
Today, ENSEM has successfully predicted a dynamic pocket that has never been discovered in the industry and can significantly impact the activity and selectivity of drug molecules by applying state-of-the-art industrial-grade deep learning models in the global pharmaceutical field to study globally recognized difficult-to-drug oncology targets. Based on this dynamic pocket, ENSEM's world-class pharmaceutical team has 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 shows substantial improvements in potency, selectivity, drug-likeness, and therapeutic window, effectively addressing issues such as poor drug-likeness and off-target effects of competing molecules.
Dr. Shengfang Jin, Co-founder & CEO of ENSEM, stated: "ENSEM was founded in the era of Alphafold2 and 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 the discovery of new drugs 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."