PharOS has entered into a new strategic partnership with biotech startup Purposeful, making a significant investment in the company as well as a partial buyout of stakes from existing shareholders such as Metavallon VC.
Purposeful was founded in 2018 by Drs. Giorgos Drakakis, Mr. Charalambos Homenidis, Dr. Georgia Tsilikis and Prof. Aristides Dokoumetzidis, a team with experience in chemoinformatics, bioinformatics and software technologies from industry and academia, with experience in biostatistical analysis, biological activity predictions, drug action mechanism mining and modeling of complex biological and chemical data. Purposeful’s goal is to discover alternative uses for drugs already on the market using advanced computational AI workflows, with the primary goal of finding cures for rare diseases.
Funded by Metavallon VC, the company has, over the past 5 years, developed smart manufacturing and results prioritization strategies and is developing innovative pharmaceutical products for diseases such as Fragile X, Glioblastoma, Pitt-Hopkins, Acrodysostosis, some of which it has already advanced in successful in vitro and in vivo experiments, submission of international patent applications, but also preliminary clinical studies. At the same time, it has developed partnerships with many pharmaceutical companies, research organizations and international patient organizations. Purposeful’s approach reduces the enormous cost of drug development by combining advanced machine learning algorithms with a computationally intelligent drug repositioning methodology.
The investment from PharOS will be used to expand the existing team and enable more trials at the preclinical and clinical level for drug candidates.
“We are pleased to welcome Purposeful to the PharOS family,” said the PharOS Management Team. “Purposeful develops innovative solutions in the pharmaceutical industry, consistently pushing the boundaries and delivering innovative solutions. This investment, and our strategic partnership, allows us to combine our resources and expertise to further advance Purposeful’s mission and expand its reach globally while perfectly aligning with PharOS’ strategic goals and commitment to lead the research and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry”.
The CEO of Purposeful, Dr. George Drakakis, expressed his enthusiasm for the investment, stating: “Joining forces with PharOS is a unique opportunity for Purposeful. We believe that with the new capital, support and expertise of PharOS, we can scale our operations, accelerate our development of the most promising drug candidates for repositioning and drive meaningful change at an even larger scale for a range of ‘rare’ and not only diseases”.
Metavallon VC Co-Founder and Partner, Giorgos Karantonis, said: “We are really excited that Purposeful is moving to the next stage of development through the strategic partnership with PharOS. We took a significant risk in 2018 by investing in a new deep tech team operating in such a competitive space. The know-how, the systematic work and the promising initial results today validate our confidence in the company and confirm our investment strategy. I must say that this agreement would not have been made without the active support and cooperation of the executives of Deca/Diorama, the fund that participates in PharOS. We especially thank them along with the managements and executives of both companies involved
Greek biotech Startup Purposeful annouces new strategic investment by PharOS and Metavallon VC
