Two Aussie peptide companies came out of the blocks in 2001. One stayed private and one listed. Arguably, Protagonist Therapeutics has raced ahead.
I note a successful new round of funding for Protagonist this week, to the tune of $40 million. $27 million has already been raised in two previous rounds. Big pharma backers of Protagonist include J &J Innovations and Lilly Ventures. Protagonist is now based in California, but was originally spun out from UQ’s IMB in 2001. The company discovers and develops peptides using its proprietary technology platform. Its pipeline of drugs in development has a focus on orally administered peptides for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and other GI disorders.
Financing proceeds from this latest round will be used to advance Protagonist's lead drug candidate into human clinical trials as a potential targeted therapy for IBD, as well as to further the development of additional oral peptide drug candidates in the company's product pipeline.
Protagonist is keeping its options for the future open, with the CEO saying there are several potential collaborative deal structures to consider, an IPO or buyout or some other arrangement.
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