Pledge Therapeutics develops first-in-class small molecule drugs targeting challenging, previously undruggable targets in immune-oncology and antiviral medicine. The company utilizes a discovery engine combining advanced structural biology, biophysics, and cell-based data to design novel therapeutics with profound disease-modifying effects. Their focus is on bringing drug candidates with new mechanisms of action to clinical translation for life-threatening diseases.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Many therapeutic targets, which could significantly alter the course of diseases, remain inaccessible to traditional drug development methods. This is due to challenges in designing molecules that can effectively bind to and modulate these "undruggable" targets. This limitation hinders the development of new treatments for life-threatening diseases.
Solution
Pledge Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing small molecule drugs for challenging and previously "undruggable" therapeutic targets. The company utilizes a structure-based drug design platform, integrating biophysical and orthogonal technologies, to create novel compounds. By solving high-resolution atomic structures of drug candidates in complex with their protein targets, Pledge Therapeutics accelerates the discovery process and aims to generate drug candidates with unique mechanisms of action. These candidates are designed to engage the target and deliver a profound disease-modifying effect, making them suitable for strategic co-development.
Target Audience
Pledge Therapeutics primarily targets pharmaceutical companies seeking novel drug candidates for co-development, as well as patients suffering from life-threatening diseases with limited treatment options.
Features
- Structure-based drug design using X-ray crystallography and other biophysical techniques
- Focus on clinically validated targets with unmet medical needs in immuno-oncology and virology
- Development of small molecule drugs that demonstrate target engagement
- Rational drug design to develop new antibiotics
- Discovery of drugs that target SARS-CoV-2 replication and suppress the immune-related cytokine storm
- Development of first-in-class immune-checkpoint inhibitors and activators
- Application of computational chemistry, cheminformatics, and bioinformatics in drug discovery
- Proprietary models enable access to new chemical matter