PsiThera Raises $47.5 Million Series A to Develop Oral Drugs for TNF Superfamily Targets
核心洞察
PsiThera (搜索) closed a $47.5 million Series A financing led by Samsara Biocapital (搜索) and Lightstone Ventures (搜索) to advance oral medicines targeting immune and inflammatory diseases (搜索).
The company appointed biotech veteran Eric Shaff as CEO, who previously led Seres Therapeutics' approval of VOWST, the first oral FDA-approved microbiome therapeutic.
PsiThera (搜索)'s QUAISAR platform integrates quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, and AI to develop oral drugs for TNF superfamily (搜索) targets traditionally accessible only to biologics.
PsiThera (搜索), a biotechnology company developing oral drugs for immune and inflammatory diseases (搜索), has closed a $47.5 million Series A financing round and appointed Eric Shaff as Chief Executive Officer. The equity round was led by Samsara Biocapital (搜索) and Lightstone Ventures (搜索) with participation from Roivant (搜索), YK Bioventures, Eurofarma Ventures, and other investors.
The company, formerly known as Psivant Therapeutics and originally a Roivant (搜索) spinout, now operates as a fully independent entity focused on creating oral alternatives to injectable therapies for diseases in the immune and inflammatory space.
Leadership and Platform Technology
Eric Shaff brings significant biotech experience to his new role, having spent a decade at Seres Therapeutics where he served as CEO and led the approval of VOWST, a Breakthrough Designated clinical program and the first oral FDA-approved microbiome therapeutic. He joins an established leadership team including Woody Sherman, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, and Camil Sayegh, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer.
"PsiThera (搜索) has integrated predictive computational power, biophysics, mechanistic biology, and drug hunter expertise into a continuous feedback loop," said Shaff. "The company is designed to bring the best computational tools to bear on the rate-limiting problems for difficult small molecule targets."
The company's proprietary QUAISAR computational intelligence platform leverages quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, machine learning, and supercomputing to model how proteins and drugs behave in biological environments. The platform originated from Dr. Sherman's founding role at Silicon Therapeutics (搜索) and was refined over years at Roivant (搜索) Discovery.
Rapid Drug Discovery Progress
PsiThera (搜索)'s platform has demonstrated remarkable efficiency in drug discovery timelines. The company advanced its lead program from identification of a novel chemical scaffold hit to lead optimization in just four months, illustrating the platform's ability to translate complex physics and AI insights into actionable design decisions.
"The four-month advancement of our lead program from identification of a novel chemical scaffold hit to lead optimization illustrates how efficiently our discovery engine operates and its potential to accelerate bringing new therapeutics to patients," Shaff noted.
TNF Superfamily Focus
The company is rapidly advancing a pipeline of novel therapeutics designed to modulate high-value targets, with initial programs focused on the Tumor Necrosis Factor (搜索) (TNF) superfamily. These targets have been clinically validated but traditionally considered accessible only to biologics rather than oral small molecules.
"Traditional drug discovery approaches have significant limitations when it comes to challenging targets where molecular motion plays a pivotal role," said Woody Sherman, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Innovation Officer. "The fusion of our proprietary predictive computational models and human feedback from drug hunters with deep domain expertise accelerates the discovery of new drugs with optimized properties and the potential for superior efficacy."
Investor Perspective
Christina Isacson, Ph.D., Partner at Lightstone Ventures (搜索) and Chair of PsiThera (搜索)'s Board of Directors, emphasized the company's positioning in the biotech landscape. "PsiThera exists at the nexus of advanced capabilities directed at creating real products and where biotech needs to go next," she said. "The company's computational excellence, scientific rigor, closed-loop integration, target selection strategy, and top-tier team position PsiThera to rapidly deliver differentiated therapeutic breakthroughs with the potential to meaningfully impact patient lives."
Scientific Leadership
PsiThera (搜索)'s leadership team extends beyond the C-suite to include Jean-Christophe Harmange, Pharm.D., Ph.D., SVP, Drug Discovery, and Kal Lapan, Ph.D., VP, Head of Operations. Dr. Sayegh brings more than 20 years of cross-sector experience in biopharma and has contributed to the discovery and development of several clinical assets, including ZILBRYSQ.
The company's Scientific Advisory Board includes notable figures such as Todd Martinez, Ph.D., Professor at Stanford University; James Rush, Ph.D., CEO of Spica Therapeutics; H. Martin Seidel, Ph.D., CEO of IFM Therapeutics; Peter Tummino, Ph.D., President of R&D at Nimbus Therapeutics; and Harald Wajant, Ph.D., Professor at University Hospital of Würzburg.
The Series A funding will support PsiThera (搜索)'s mission to expand the boundaries of what oral medicines can deliver, addressing high-value targets in immune and inflammatory diseases (搜索) that have long been constrained by injectable-only approaches.