PRISM BioLab, Co. Ltd. ("PRISM"), a leading discovery and development biotechnology company designing small molecule inhibitors of protein-protein interaction (PPI) targets, today announced a 1.5 billion yen ($10.3M) fundraise. Funds will be used to refine PRISM's proprietary PepMetics® chemistry platform, expand biology and screening capabilities and advance internal pipeline of PPI inhibitors.

As the numbers of so called "druggable" targets are dwindling, pharma is gradually turning to PPI targets. Due to frequent involvement in the disease and a sheer number of PPIs, they have long been recognized as a new frontier for drug discovery but the progress has been hampered by the lack of chemistries that can successfully address PPI targets. PRISM BioLab has early recognized the importance of PPIs as drug targets and has spent over a decade developing proprietary PepMetics® chemical scaffolds that mimic three-dimensional structure of the alpha-helix and beta-turn, peptide structures commonly found in PPI interphases. Today, PepMetics® chemistry enables systematic and reproducible discovery and development of drugs targeting PPIs.

"We are confident that our PepMetics® chemistry will become one of the key technologies for the PPI target field," said Dai Takehara, CEO of PRISM BioLab. "The funds from this financing round will be used to integrate our PepMetics® chemistry, biology and screening capabilities, to advance our internal pipeline, and to provide greater value to our existing and future pharma partners. We recognize the importance of partnerships for the success of new approaches to drug discovery and are fortunate to build a long-term relationship with Lilly, a top pharma company, as we move the field forward."