Jitai Pharmaceutical's Series A financing of 86 million US dollars, core technology includes quantum simulation

Recently, METiS Therapeutics announced the completion of a US$86 million Series A financing. This round of financing was led by the People's Insurance Company of China (PICC) PE and China Life Insurance, followed by Sequoia Capital China, Lightspeed, Wuyuan Capital, Fengrui Capital and China Merchants Bank International (CMBI) ZhaoxinWuji Fund. This funding will support its clinical trials in 2022 and the further development of its predictive artificial intelligence platform.

Jitai Pharmaceutical was established in January 2020. The founding team came from Jingtai Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other biotechnology companies. This start-up company uses artificial intelligence to drive drug delivery and formulation development. Through the combination of high-throughput test platforms and artificial intelligence computing technologies, it realizes the automation and intelligence of drug delivery and formulation development, and produces new drugs with clinical significance on a large scale. The company will use the proceeds from this round of financing to promote the establishment of a pipeline with high therapeutic potential, and continue to develop an AI-driven drug R&D and delivery platform.

Jitai Pharmaceutical’s technology helps to accelerate the flow of new drugs in the pipeline by optimizing pre-clinical trial operations and enabling users to efficiently conduct research and design. It also uses machine learning and quantum simulation to make small molecules and ribonucleic acid drugs.

Dr. Lai Caida, Co-founder & CEO of Jitai Medicine, said: “By creating a proprietary predictive artificial intelligence platform, Jitai Medicine is in a good position to change the prospects for drug discovery and delivery. We use machine learning, artificial intelligence and quantum simulation. Come discover new drug candidates, and change drug discovery and development, and ultimately bring the best treatment to patients in need. We are fortunate that our world-class investors believe in our vision. This round of financing represents that we will be next year The first of many important milestones achieved."

Dr. Lai Caida received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and developed process optimization and QbD digital process design at Novartis Research Center. He also served as a strategic consultant at McKinsey, assisting in the digital strategy and market development of Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies, and planning business such as organizational reorganization.

Dr. Lai Caida

He said that, in fact, through software testing and animal experiments, the company team has proven the ability to achieve "100-fold improvements in delivery and development." He believes that the platform can produce results comparable to those of major RNA companies Moderna and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Lai Caida added that the company's internal pipeline will initially focus on orphan diseases (rare diseases), central nervous system diseases and autoimmune diseases, and plans to expand into the field of gene therapy.

Currently, the company has a total of 70 employees in China and Massachusetts. Most of the team members are currently located in China, but Jitai Pharmaceutical plans to use these new financing to double or even triple its U.S. employee base in 2022.

link:https://www.biospace.com/article/metis-launches-to-take-drug-development-a-quantum-leap-ahead-/