Initial Therapeutics, a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, CA, has raised $75 million in Series A funding. The company was created and received its initial investment from Apple Tree Partners.
Co-founded by Jamie H.D. Cate, Ph.D., Brian Paegel, Ph.D., and Kevan Shokat, Ph.D., professors at the University of California (UC) system, Initial Therapeutics aims to develop medicines that target notoriously difficult-to-drug proteins using a new mode of action called selective termination of protein synthesis (STOPS). The company has developed its proprietary STOPS platform to discover new therapeutics based on the recently demonstrated scientific premise that the translation of a specific protein can be selectively interrupted at the moment its linear sequence is first produced in the exit tunnel of the ribosome.
Spiros Liras, Ph.D., a venture partner at Apple Tree Partners, serves as the founding CEO of Initial Therapeutics.
