Biotechnology company Draupnir Bio has received equity investments totalling €12 million to support the company’s work in the field of targeted protein degradation (TPD).

TPD is a rapidly emerging field in drug development, exploiting a cell’s own destruction machinery to tackle disease-causing proteins that have historically been highly challenging to target with conventional therapies.

Yet first-generation approaches are exclusively limited to cytosolic targets, leaving extracellular and membrane-bound proteins – 40% of the human proteome – untouched.

Draupnir is extending the potential of TPD to target extracellular and membrane-bound proteins using its technology platform, utilising lysosome receptors.

MP Healthcare, the corporate venture group of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), a financing fund backed by the Danish government, join Draupnir’s existing investors, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital and Novo Holdings.

The proceeds from the financing will be used to further develop Draupnir’s risk-diversified preclinical pipeline of oral, small molecule protein degraders, which have been proven against targets that are validated and those that have been traditionally difficult to drug.

Andrew Hotchkiss, Chief Executive Officer of Draupnir Bio, said: “Draupnir has a bold ambition to pioneer the next frontier of extracellular protein degradation. Our novel technology platform targeting extracellular and membrane-bound disease proteins for degradation holds great promise for targets that have previously been difficult to target with small molecules or have been undruggable, and enables the development of new therapeutic approaches for complex conditions.

“We are delighted to welcome MP Healthcare and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark as investors in the Company and thank our existing investors, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital and Novo Holdings, for their continued support.”

Diana Spencer, Senior Digital Content Editor, DDW