BOSTON and TEL-AVIV, Israel, Jan. 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quris, an artificial intelligence (AI) innovator disrupting the pharmaceutical arena, today announced the final close of $28 million in seed funding – inclusive of the initial $9 million announced late last year with the launch of Quris’ BioAI platform for clinical prediction. Led by Welltech Ventures with participation from iAngels, GlenRock Capital, and others, the funding will fast-track Quris’ novel drug research and development, team expansion and partner-building efforts as it scales to rapidly scan 100s of drug candidates to train its AI engine in its mission to revolutionize the drug development process.
Since launching its clinical prediction AI platform late last year, Quris has focused on expanding its industry collaborations and prepping the first drug developed on the platform, addressing Fragile X syndrome (FXS), for clinical testing in 2022.
“With an exemplary team and remarkable technology breakthroughs, Quris fit perfectly into our portfolio of health and wellness technology innovators,” said Amir Alroy and Galit Horovitz, co-founders of Welltech Ventures. “We are thrilled to take the lead in the company’s seed round, as we think Quris is primed to forge the next critical phase in novel drug discovery and its AI platform will also help the industry rethink how and when to best use existing drugs.”
“We seek to back the leaders defining the future of healthcare. As early investors in the pharma and digital-health space, we’ve seen how multidisciplinary capabilities, combining AI and biotech, are necessary to penetrate these highly complex and competitive industries,” said Shelly Hod Moyal, managing partner of iAngels. “This is exactly why we invested in Quris; the first AI clinical-prediction platform that simulates clinical trials by leveraging a patented organ-on-chip system through the use of stem-cell derived tissue and AI. The platform is able to simulate a real human body’s reaction to drugs without the timely and inaccurate animal-testing stage, which has the potential to revolutionize the entire pharmaceutical industry.”
Quris uses AI-powered miniaturized “patients-on-a-chip” to avoid the tremendous risks and costs of failed clinical trials and eliminate the reliance on ineffective animal testing under the scientific leadership of industry visionaries, including Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover and Dr. Robert S. Langer, co-founder of Moderna. In partnership with The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute, Quris is developing a fully automated, self-training AI platform that better predicts clinical safety and efficacy for new drug candidates.
“Now is the time to tap technology to transform drug development and end the costly cycle of failed clinical trials,” added Quris CEO Isaac Bentwich. “The added investor support will help Quris grow the team and partnerships needed to create a clear view to predict the clinical safety of drugs for individual patients. With the technology advances at our disposal, we can close the clinical prediction gap.”
Learn more about the exceptionally talented team and Advisory Board – including investors Dr. Kobi Richter, pioneer of cardiovascular intervention therapeutics, and Moshe Yanai, a disruptive data-storage technology leader – dedicated to harnessing the power of breakthroughs in machine learning, engineering and biology to change how drugs are developed. Watch this video for perspective from top voices in the pharma community on what makes Quris and its chip-based clinical trials revolutionary.
About Quris
Quris aims to disrupt drug development by better predicting which drug candidates will safely work in humans – ensuring the safety and efficacy of new drugs and the repurposing and personalization of existing drugs. Using Quris’ patented Chip-on-Chip technology to test thousands of known and novel drug candidates on hundreds of its genetically diverse, miniaturized patients-on-a-chip, its automated, self-training BioAI platform generates proprietary data and uses machine learning to quickly predict clinical safety and efficacy. Dual-headquartered in Boston and Israel and backed by strategic biotech and big data investors, Quris is led by a proven team of AI and medical research powerhouses who are already preparing its lead discovery for clinical testing. For more information, visit www.quris.ai.
For more information, please contact:
Erica Camilo
Tel. +1 610-639-5644
