Encycle raises $2.85 million in start-up funding

Encycle Therapeutics Inc has completed financing of $2.85 million to support development of its nacellin platform chemistry and advance its therapeutics pipeline. The investment in the Toronto-based firm — spun off from the Univ of Toronto in collaboration with MaRS Innovation — will allow it to build on its relationships with pharmaceutical companies and position itself for series A financing or additional strategic partnerships. The funding round was led by Takeda Ventures Inc and includes Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator, BDC Capital and MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund. Potential applications for Encycles' chemistry include so-called undruggable proteins which cannot be targeted with conventional therapeutics. Its synthetic method for generating drug-like cyclic peptides is called nacellins, which are membrane permeable and "orally bioavailable". The technology was developed by a Univ of Toronto research team led by Dr Andrei Tudin with support from many players along the Ontario-Quebec life sciences corridor....