We are pleased to announce our investment in Pinpoint Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel autophagy inhibitors to treat cancer.
“Pinpoint has developed best-in-class compounds with unprecedented therapeutic potential, and we are thrilled to support their efforts as they develop these novel drug candidates for treatment of colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, melanoma, and other major unmet needs in oncology.” — Jim Demetriades, CEO and Founder of Kairos Ventures
Pinpoint was founded by researchers Ravi K. Amaravadi, M.D. and Jeffrey D. Winkler, Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center and the Department of Chemistry, to develop new autophagy inhibitors for cancer treatments. Autophagy is a well-established mechanism of cancer cell survival and drug resistance. Pinpoint’s novel compounds target a recently discovered enzyme in the autophagy pathway called PPT1, which is highly expressed across most cancers. These inhibitors could be applied to a broad range of cancers alone or in combination with other treatments to overcome therapy resistance. Pinpoint will develop first-in-class autophagy inhibitors into clinical drugs for testing in a range of treatment refractory cancers.
“Pinpoint has developed best-in-class compounds with unprecedented therapeutic potential, and we are thrilled to support their efforts as they develop these novel drug candidates for treatment of colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, melanoma, and other major unmet needs in oncology,” said Jim Demetriades, CEO and Founder of Kairos Ventures.
“This initial round of financing will allow us to develop a new approach to drugging autophagy, which until now seemed difficult to target in cancer,” said Christian Peters M.D. Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Pinpoint. “The activity of PPT1 inhibitors in cancer models has not been seen before in the autophagy space.”
Pinpoint was launched in 2018 through PCI Ventures, a division of the Penn Center for Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania. Congratulations to the Pinpoint team on this round of financing!
