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
Nebex Raises $30M Seed Round Led by GV to Build Market Infrastructure for the Global Space Economy29.6.2026 17:38:00 CEST | Press release
The new funding and banking relationship allow Nebex to scale the market and unlock the commercial space economy. Nebex, the market infrastructure platform for the global space economy, announced a $30M seed investment led by GV (Google Ventures), with participation from other top-tier venture funds. The company also announced a banking relationship with J.P. Morgan. The capital raise and new banking relationship will help Nebex scale its platform and connect sovereign space programs with the founders and companies building new technologies to serve the space industry. "We built Nebex because we've seen firsthand that ambitious space founders struggle to deliver complex sovereign programs due to the lack of capital markets infrastructure that supports revenue and cashflow. This is something that exists in nearly every other industry," said Tejpaul Bhatia, CEO of Nebex. "Support from these organizations gives Nebex the additional leverage and financial infrastructure to build the global
Medisca Enters Its Next Chapter Under Founder Antonio Dos Santos29.6.2026 16:19:00 CEST | Press release
Medisca today announced that Founder and Chairman Antonio Dos Santos has returned to the role of Chief Executive Officer as the company enters its next chapter of growth. For more than 35 years, Dos Santos has helped shape Medisca into a global leader in pharmaceutical compounding. As Chief Executive Officer, he will lead the company's long-term strategy, with a focus on expanding Medisca's global reach, investing in new areas of growth, strengthening strategic partnerships, and continuing to advance the products, services, education, and expertise that healthcare professionals rely on every day. "When I founded Medisca, my vision was to raise the standard of pharmaceutical compounding by bringing pharmaceutical-grade quality to the industry and giving healthcare professionals access to the products, knowledge, and innovation they needed to deliver better patient care," said Antonio Dos Santos, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Medisca. "That purpose continues to guide us. As we b
The Premier Jumping League (PJL) & McCarthy Jumping Team Announce Landmark Purchase29.6.2026 15:10:00 CEST | Press release
With $50 Million Team Acquisition, McCarthy Jumping Team Becomes First PJL Ownership Group Acquisition illustrates strong investor confidence in the future of professional showjumping as highly anticipated 2027 inaugural season to feature 16 teams competing across 14 international events The Premier Jumping League (PJL) today announced that seasoned trader, investor, and competitive race car driver Jason McCarthy and McCarthy Jumping League LLC acquired the first PJL team in a landmark $50 million acquisition, building on rising momentum for the highly acclaimed professional jumping league. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260629512997/en/ The Premier Jumping League (PJL), photographed by Daniel Benson. The milestone investment represents an unprecedented valuation for a team in a newly established sports competition and underscores the confidence that sophisticated investors are placing in the PJL. The inaugur
InvestEco Sustainable Food Fund IV Holds a Final Close With Total Commitments of C$106M29.6.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
InvestEco Capital is pleased to announce the final close of the InvestEco Sustainable Food Fund IV. This fund will continue InvestEco’s work of investing in high-growth food companies that promote health and sustainability in the food sector. The Fund closed with total commitments of C$106M, the largest InvestEco fund to date. Investors include Farm Credit Canada, Export Development Canada, Business Development Bank of Canada, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, and two Government of Canada Social Finance Fund wholesalers: Boann and Realize Capital Partners. In addition, the Fund received commitments from a number of private investors and family offices. The Fund's investments to date include Humble Snacks, Little Sesame, Mid-Day Squares and Algae Cooking Club. The Fund expects to make a further 6 - 10 investments over the next few years. InvestEco Capital, founded in 2002, is a Toronto-based venture capital firm and impact investor focused on the sustainable food sector. For more information, em
Geoswift and SKUx Announce Strategic Partnership to Develop a First-of-Its-Kind Programmable Stablecoin Commerce Network29.6.2026 14:00:00 CEST | Press release
Bridging digital assets, traditional finance, enterprise treasury, and agentic commerce through global programmable money infrastructure Geoswift and SKUx announced a groundbreaking partnership to develop a next-generation programmable stablecoin commerce network. This strategic collaboration bridges digital assets, traditional finance, and real-world commerce at a global scale, representing a "one-of-one" opportunity by combining Geoswift's global infrastructure with SKUx's specialized item-level controls directly within point-of-sale (POS) systems. While enterprise stablecoin usage continues to accelerate globally, governments, enterprises, payment networks, and AI-driven commerce platforms are increasingly seeking programmable payment infrastructure that can bridge digital assets with real-world commerce. The innovation goes far beyond treasury management or even enabling consumers to spend stablecoins at retail locations. Instead, it unlocks true "programmable money" with embedded
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