Iktos SA raises €15.5m in Series A financing
Paris-based AI-inspired drug discovery specialist Iktos SA has closed a €15.5m financing to expand its platform and kick-start the new CRO Iktos Robotics.
aThe Series A financing of Iktos was co-led by new investors M Ventures and Debiopharm Innovation Fund with participation from Omnes Capital. The company said that the financing will the expansion of its existing SaaS software offering, in addition to launching Iktos Robotics – an end-to-end drug discovery platform that combines artificial intelligence and automation of chemical synthesis in order to accelerate drug discovery timelines. Within the financing, Iktos will extend the application of its solutions to biologics such as peptides or antibodies.
Currently, early drug development takes about five years, requires an investment of approximately US$100m. The artificial intelligence solutions developed by Iktos are aimed to considerably speed up the drug discovery process, while increasing the probability of success of drug candidates reaching clinical development. This approach is already validated by Iktos through more than 50 academic and industrial collaborations, with multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies such as Janssen, Merck, Pfizer, Servier, Ono and Teijin to name only a few.
Iktos platform combines Spaya API, a high throughput synthetic accessibility scoring tool for virtual molecule libraries; Spaya, a synthesis planning software based upon Iktoss AI technology for retrosynthesis, and Makya, a ligand and structure-based de novo drug design platform for chemical space exploration and Multi-Parametric Optimisation (MPO) of lead compounds in line with Target Candidate Profile (TCP)
