[Update (8.2023): raised $17M seed funding in Aug 22] Pharma companies have increasingly relied on innovative biotech startups to bolster their pipeline. The global small-molecule drug discovery market reached $25B in 2019 and is expected to grow to $50B by 2027. Think's business model is to partner with pharma companies to build precisely targeted, readily synthesizable molecules. For a drug target of interest, standard partnership models consist of an upfront fee with long-term development milestones and royalties. Just for the SHP2 (similar class to PTP1B) market, there have been several partnerships with deal values exceeding $500M. Synthetic biology is a growing field that designs microbes to confer capabilities outside their native function. Proof-of-concept has been demonstrated in elusive target, PTP1B, which is implicated in type 2 diabetes, obesity, and breast cancer. Further development will focus on optimizing the two novel drug scaffolds and expanding the platform to other key protein classes.
