MA-ANIMOL-DISCOVERY
28.7.2022 13:09:06 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
Animol Discovery, Inc., a pioneer in veterinary pharmaceutical discovery, today announced it has raised $34.0 million in Series B financing. The investment was led by Novalis Lifesciences, with participation from Finistere Ventures and existing investor Anterra Capital. The proceeds allow the company to expand and advance its pipeline of novel active pharmaceutical ingredients through clinical development and further enhance its cutting-edge drug discovery platform.
The $40Bn animal health industry continues to demand novel medicines to treat infectious and chronic diseases in companion and production animals. Recent successes, such as Apoquel™ from Zoetis and Nexguard™ from Boehringer Ingelheim, demonstrate the potential to build towards blockbuster franchises in the sector with novel pharmaceutical products.
“Pet parents and livestock farmers continue to demand novel veterinary pharmaceuticals that can protect animals against diseases and improve quality of life,” said Andrew Plant PhD, chief executive officer, Animol Discovery. “Despite this strong demand, innovation is lagging. At Animol, we seek to address this innovation gap by leveraging the most advanced tools from human pharma to bring forward a wealth of new medicines that can benefit animals and the people who care for them.”
Founded in 2020 and incubated by Anterra Capital, Animol is pioneering the use of DNA Encoded Library (DEL) drug discovery technology coupled with powerful machine learning approaches to enable the rapid discovery of novel veterinary medicines.
“We have built Animol on the same cutting edge discovery techniques that we are using to disrupt drug discovery in human pharma (ZebiAI - acquired by Relay Therapeutics) and crop protection (Enko Chem),” said Philip Austin, Managing Partner at Anterra Capital. “Translating these tools to the massive opportunity available in veterinary pharma was the next obvious step and we are already seeing their use successfully build into a rich pipeline of promising compounds.”
Animol also announced that Marijn Dekkers PhD, founder & chairman of Novalis LifeSciences LLC will join the Board of Directors. Dr. Dekkers formerly served as the CEO of Bayer AG, and as the CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. At Bayer he oversaw one of the largest global animal health companies.
“Most current medicines in the $40B veterinary pharma market are derived from drugs that have been originally developed for humans. There is of course nothing wrong with that, but there are many animal-specific diseases that require a targeted effort. I like Animol Discovery’s approach to use its breakthrough drug discovery platform to specifically address significant unmet needs in animals. I am looking forward to working with the team to optimize the opportunity ahead,” said Dr. Dekkers.
“It is a great pleasure to be able to welcome Marijn Dekkers to our Board of Directors. Dr. Dekkers is an exceptional industry leader with a track record of turning innovation into successful businesses across the spectrum of life sciences, including in animal health,” said Andrew Plant PhD, chief executive officer, Animol Discovery. “He is an excellent addition to our team of experienced industry leaders.”
“I am also delighted to bring Doug Hutchens on board as chief scientific officer. Dr. Hutchens brings a wealth of industry experience in animal health research and product development; having someone who has also served as Chief Veterinary Officer within a major animal health company brings huge value to our expanding team,” added Dr. Plant.
“I am thrilled by the prospect of joining Animol’s dynamic and experienced team as chief scientific officer,” said Doug Hutchens, DVM, PhD. “The company’s ability to interrogate protein targets with billions of DNA-tagged molecules and, using DNA sequencing, identify selective inhibitors from numerous diverse chemical families is game changing in animal health drug discovery. Leveraging these data with proprietary, highly predictive machine learning algorithms, is enabling the identification of novel drug-like compounds in a matter of weeks from the initial DEL screen. This technology platform greatly expands the opportunities, significantly increases the probability, and accelerates the timeline in developing new classes of therapeutic molecules.”
About Animol
Animol is a pioneer in using state of the art drug discovery technology to discover small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients to transform standards of care in veterinary medicine. The company is reducing the time and cost to discover novel active ingredients utilizing DNA-encoded libraries, machine learning/AI and structure-based design.
Animol is a private company based in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information see www.Animol-discovery.com
About Novalis LifeSciences LLC
Novalis LifeSciences LLC is an investment and advisory firm for the Life Science industry that was founded in 2017 by Marijn E. Dekkers. With a team of experienced operating executives from the Life Science industry, Novalis funds and advises visionary Life Science entrepreneurs. In addition to making financial investments, Novalis provides strategic and operational advice to portfolio companies that are at a critical growth stage in their development. For more information, visit www.novalislifesciences.com
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220728005186/en/
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Andersen Global styrker sine kompetencer inden for skat og global mobilitet i Tyskland2.7.2026 00:13:00 CEST | Pressemeddelelse
Andersen Global styrker sin tilstedeværelse gennem en samarbejdsaftale med Lohr and Company (L+C), der er en erfaren skatterådgivningsvirksomhed, der leverer praktiske og fleksible løsninger inden for skattecompliance, internationale skatteforhold, global mobilitet og transfer pricing. L+C har hovedkontor i Tyskland og er også til stede i Østrig og rådgiver store multinationale selskaber, familieejede virksomheder, familievirksomheder, fonde og formuende privatpersoner. L+C blev grundlagt i 2001 og har specialiseret sig i global mobilitet, opkøb og fusioner, international skattelovgivning, rapportering mellem lande og transfer pricing, herunder rapportering i henhold til Pillar 2. Derudover bistår L+C sine kunder med trusts og fonde, skattecompliance, løn- og regnskabsadministration samt privatøkonomisk rådgivning. "Samarbejdet med Andersen Global er et vigtigt skridt i udvidelsen af vores internationale kompetencer og styrker den værdi, vi skaber for kunder, der navigerer i stadig mer
Robinhood Chooses Morpho to Power New Earn Product1.7.2026 21:15:00 CEST | Press release
Morpho now powers the infrastructure behind some of the most widely used retail financial platforms in the United States, bringing more options for onchain yield to millions of customers through the apps they already use. Morpho, the open blockchain-based credit network, today announced it will power Robinhood’s new Earn product, enabling Robinhood's millions of eligible users more options to earn yield onchain via a self-custody wallet, directly within the Robinhood app. The product will roll out progressively to Robinhood's US customer base over the coming weeks. The Robinhood Earn product aims to provide risk-adjusted yield on idle balances using USDG, a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Morpho serves as the underlying credit network, Steakhouse Financial curates the vault infrastructure supporting the product, and Robinhood Chain acts as the settlement layer. The product is delivered through a seamless experience in the Robinhood app. Morpho operates as an open network on the blockchain. L
Photonics Innovators Worldwide Invited to Compete for SPIE Prism Awards1.7.2026 20:33:00 CEST | Press release
19th annual award honors exceptional new products transforming light-based technologies SPIE, the international society of optics and photonics, invites the optics and photonics community to apply for this year’s SPIE Prism Awards, which recognize outstanding new products making waves on the market. Honorees will be announced at the highly-anticipated award ceremony on 3 February 2027 at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco, California. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260701642411/en/ SPIE Prism Awards honor exceptional new products transforming optics and photonics technologies. These awards, dubbed the “Oscars of Photonics,” provide scientists and engineers in the optics and photonics industry the opportunity to showcase their contributions to the field. Finalists and winners receive extensive print, web, and onsite promotion at SPIE Photonics West, which draws more than 22,000 researchers and industry leade
Around 500 Attend Sino-European ESG Conference in Germany1.7.2026 18:00:00 CEST | Press release
Around 500 government officials, business executives and academics from China and Europe gathered in the western German city of Mainz on Friday for the Third Sino-European Corporate ESG Best Practice Conference to discuss how deeper cooperation can support sustainable economic growth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260701255421/en/ Group photo of selected attendees at the conference. Hosted by the Chinese Consulate General in Frankfurt and jointly organized with authorities from Germany and China, the conference brought together participants from China, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg and several other countries under the theme "From Vision to Practice: Empowering Sustainable Growth Through Collaboration." Francesco La Camera, Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), delivered a video address. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Huang Yiyang, Chinese Co
Sinopec Receives CSR Award at Sino-European ESG Conference in Germany1.7.2026 15:38:00 CEST | Press release
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) has received the Corporate Social Responsibility Best Practice Award at the 3rd Sino-European Corporate ESG Best Practice Conference in Mainz, Germany, for its case study on carbon footprint management and low-carbon development. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260701696760/en/ Huang Yiyang (L), Chinese Consul General in Frankfurt, presents the award to a representative of Sinopec. The conference jury said Sinopec has developed a carbon management framework centered on product carbon footprint management, covering the full product life cycle while aligning with both Chinese and European standards. It cited the company’s work with German chemical producer BASF to achieve mutual recognition of carbon footprint accounting methodologies as a milestone that could support greener cooperation across international industrial supply chains. According to the jury, Sinopec’s eff
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom