Toronto-based biotech startup counts OpenAI, Founders Fund, and Staircase Ventures as backers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Toronto-based biotech startup Biossil has exited stealth with backing from OpenAI and Founders Fund to give discarded drug candidates a second chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The startup uses an AI platform to identify molecules that could make good drug candidates but didn\u2019t make it all the way through their own clinical trials. When Biossil sees potential, it buys or licenses those molecules from the original creators, giving the startup a head start on development rather than starting from scratch like a traditional pharmaceutical developer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe AI is one of the most important technologies ever created, and its most profound application will be in healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n
As first reported by The Globe and Mail<\/a> earlier this week,<\/a> the company has spent the last three years quietly working on those molecules with the intent of becoming one of the largest pharma companies in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe AI is one of the most important technologies ever created, and its most profound application will be in healthcare,\u201d co-founder and CEO Anthony Mouchantaf wrote in a LinkedIn post.<\/a> \u201cOur focus is translating that capability into new therapies now, not in years or decades.\u201d<\/p>\n Mouchantaf was once director of venture capital<\/a> at RBCx, where he developed and led the bank\u2019s venture capital investment strategy. According to the Globe, his co-founder and chief scientific officer, Dr. Alexander Mosa, trained to be an internal medicine specialist before starting the company.<\/p>\n Mouchantaf told BetaKit in an email that Biossil has raised approximately $70 million USD in equity to date. In addition to OpenAI, Biossil\u2019s backers include Founders Fund, Modern Capital, Staircase Ventures, Golden Ventures, Panache Ventures, Quiet Capital, 137 Ventures, and DRI Healthcare, according to the LinkedIn post.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Mouchantaf told BetaKit the startup hasn\u2019t raised debt, he added that it does \u201cevaluate sources of off-balance sheet funding.\u201d Mouchantaf did not disclose Biossil\u2019s valuation, but said it is in the \u201cnine-figures.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: RBCx\u2019s Anthony Mouchantaf explains why he\u2019s concerned about the (potential) end of VCCI<\/a><\/p>\n Mouchantaf also did not disclose revenue specifics, but said that the company has entered into licensing agreements with other pharmaceutical and biotech companies, which has generated cash revenue and milestone-based revenue for the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have several drugs currently in clinical trials, and our goal is to bring drugs to market in the coming years,\u201d Mouchantaf said.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Biossil\u2019s website<\/a>, active trials are ongoing to treat sickle cell disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, glioblastoma, breast cancer, and Alzheimer\u2019s disease, with trials for nearly a dozen more conditions on deck.\u00a0<\/p>\n Primarily based in Toronto, with a presence in the Boston area, Mouchantaf said Biossil has around 30 employees working on its core platform and development teams. Mouchantaf explained that the platform team manages core functions like technology, clinical, legal, and quality matters, while the development teams focus on advancing individual molecules.\u00a0<\/p>\n Feature image courtesy Unsplash<\/a>. Photo by Trnava University<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto-based biotech startup counts OpenAI, Founders Fund, and Staircase Ventures as backers.
Toronto-based biotech startup Biossil has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[304670,304669,64,63,304668,2494,137,500,32236,3797,3920],"class_list":{"0":"post-628608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-alexander-mosa","9":"tag-anthony-mouchantaf","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-biossil","13":"tag-funding","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-healthcare","16":"tag-healthtech","17":"tag-ontario","18":"tag-toronto"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}