PsiThera Raises $47.5 Million Series A to Advance AI-Designed Oral Therapies for Immune and Inflammatory Diseases
Psivant Therapeutics, now rebranded as PsiThera, has announced a major funding milestone that highlights growing investor enthusiasm for AI‑driven drug discovery. In December 2025, PsiThera secured $47.5 million in a Series A financing round aimed at advancing its proprietary computational and small‑molecule drug platform focused on immune and inflammatory diseases traditionally treated with injectable biologics.
The Series A round was co‑led by Samsara BioCapital and Lightstone Ventures, both prominent investors in early‑stage life sciences companies. Participation also came from additional strategic and financial backers, including Roivant Sciences, YK Bioventures, LSV Capital Management, and Eurofarma Ventures. This investor mix reflects a combination of biotech venture capital, corporate venture engagement, and global healthcare capital aiming to support innovation at the intersection of artificial intelligence and drug development.
PsiThera’s funding round marks a key inflection point for the company, which originated as a spinout from Roivant Sciences under the name Psivant Therapeutics before adopting its new brand with the Series A close. The financing will be deployed to accelerate the company’s development pipeline of oral drug candidates that leverage computational models to tackle targets historically accessible only through injectable biologic therapies. Specifically, PsiThera is advancing small molecules aimed at members of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily, protein targets that play central roles in immune regulation and inflammatory disease.
At the helm of PsiThera’s strategic and scientific direction is newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Eric Shaff, a biotech industry veteran who previously led Seres Therapeutics through the FDA approval of the first oral microbiome‑based therapy. Under Shaff’s leadership, PsiThera is blending advanced computational chemistry, machine learning, molecular dynamics, and biophysics into its proprietary QUAISAR drug discovery platform. The company’s approach is designed to simulate biologically relevant protein behaviors and identify promising small molecules that mimic the efficacy of biologics in an orally bioavailable form.
PsiThera’s focus on oral alternatives to injectable biologics addresses a longstanding challenge in the pharmaceutical industry: translating the high efficacy of large molecule therapies into more convenient and potentially lower‑cost oral medicines. Current injectable therapies targeting TNF, such as established blockbuster biologics, have transformed treatment for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease but carry inherent limitations related to administration, manufacturing complexity, and patient access. PsiThera’s technology aims to overcome these limitations by enabling the design of small molecules capable of similar biological effects.
The financing announcement also underscores broader investor confidence in artificial intelligence as a tool for reshaping traditional pharmaceutical discovery. PsiThera’s funding reflects a trend where venture capital and corporate backers are increasingly willing to bet on companies that combine deep domain expertise in biology with cutting‑edge computational methods — a trend that has gained momentum amid rising interest in AI‑assisted therapeutic design.
In addition to its financial backing, PsiThera’s evolution from a Roivant subsidiary to an independent biotech leader highlights strategic shifts in how drug discovery platforms are structured. By transitioning to a standalone company, PsiThera has positioned itself to forge new partnerships and extend its research footprint beyond its initial parent organization. The investment from Eurofarma Ventures, for example, brings a multinational pharmaceutical perspective that could support future global development and commercialization efforts.
The company plans to use the Series A proceeds to further develop its lead programs, refine its computational platform, and accelerate the transition of promising candidates toward clinical readiness. With a strong financial foundation and a multidisciplinary leadership team, PsiThera is poised to advance its mission of creating transformative oral therapies for diseases that have historically relied on injectable biologics.
As interest in AI‑augmented drug discovery continues to grow within the biotech and investor communities, PsiThera’s successful funding round represents a key milestone in aligning innovative science with capital markets eager to support next‑generation therapeutic technologies.
