Platform enables rapid library synthesis and screening of billions of fragments in a single tube.

Nuevolution raised DKK 80.5 million (about $13.7 million) in a financing round led by Industrifonden, and supported by existing investors. The firm says the funds will be used to expand its drug discovery business, based on its fragment-based Chemetics® platform.

“In recent years we have witnessed the scientific validation of Nuevolution’s technology through a number of successful partnerships with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies,” comments Stig Løkke Pedersen, Nuevolution chairman. “Our new financing round will enable Nuevolution to transform its current business model, and take the company to the next value inflexion point.”

The Chemetics platform combines wet chemistry and molecular biology methods for the rapid synthesis and screening of up to billions of drug-like molecules in a single test tube. The technology hinges on the use of a DNA tag that identifies each small molecule in the Chemetics library, and effectively enabling single-molecule detection by allowing amplification and sequencing for hit/lead identification from in vitro affinity screening of compound libraries of huge complexity.

Nuevolution says this contrasts with current fragment based methods that use NMR and crystallography, which are typically capable of screening at maximum a few thousand fragments against a target of interest. In contrast, the Chemetics approach enables fragment-based lead discovery at the billion scale, combined with efficient screening, and using standard laboratory equipment. In fact, the firm claims, over 100 million molecules may be screened by one person against a given target in just 2–3 days, using only microgram quantities of target material and nanograms of library material.

Nuevolution is exploiting the Chemetics platform both through fully partner-funded programs and through collaborative projects. Last month the firm received a milestone payment from drug discovery partner Boehringer Ingelheim, on the identification of small molecule hits against a protein-protein interaction target. 

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