Thyora Therapeutics has emerged from stealth to leverage next-generation covalent chemistry, with a mission to accelerate clinical translation and create therapies for high-unmet medical needs. Founded on breakthrough discoveries published in Science by scientists at the Moffitt Cancer Center, the company is advancing an integrated platform that combines novel covalent chemistry with AI-enabled chemoproteomics to unlock a new generation of precision therapeutics.
Thyora was co-founded by Justin M. Lopchuk, Andrii Monastyrskyi, and Derek Duckett, inventors of the company’s foundational technologies, together with biotechnology executive T.J. Langer, who serves as chief executive officer. Together, the founders established Thyora to translate science into medicines by integrating chemistry, pharmacology and drug discovery expertise.
“When I first saw the science, I believed it represented one of those rare opportunities to build a company around discoveries that could fundamentally change an entire field,” Langer said.
“The team has developed technologies with the potential to reshape how covalent medicines are discovered and developed and to reach disease targets long considered undruggable. We founded Thyora to bring those discoveries out of the laboratory and build a company capable of translating extraordinary science into transformative medicines for patients.”
Coinciding with the company’s launch, researchers at Moffitt published landmark findings in Science describing a novel strain-release bicyclobutane (BCB) chemistry that demonstrated exceptional cysteine selectivity while maintaining potent target engagement and improved drug-like properties in preclinical studies. The work establishes a promising new approach for designing safer, more selective covalent medicines and represents an important advance in the rapidly evolving field of targeted drug discovery.
To translate these discoveries into medicines, Thyora has entered into an exclusive agreement with Moffitt, securing worldwide rights to the foundational technologies underlying its platform, including the proprietary bicyclobutane (BCB) covalent warhead technology for the development of next-generation covalent modulators, the Covalogic AI-enabled chemoproteomics discovery platform, and related intellectual property developed by Thyora’s co-founders.
The integrated discovery platform can identify, design and optimise highly selective covalent medicines against challenging disease targets.
“From the beginning, our goal was to create technologies that could expand what is possible in covalent drug discovery,” said Duckett, co-founder of Thyora Therapeutics and chair of the drug discovery department at Moffitt.
“Launching Thyora gives us the opportunity to build an enduring platform that continually generates innovative medicines based on these scientific advances.”
Initially focused on oncology, Thyora is building a pipeline of differentiated precision covalent therapeutics while expanding the potential applications of its platform across additional serious diseases. By integrating proprietary chemistry, AI-enabled chemoproteomics and functional genomics, the company aims to create medicines with greater precision, improved selectivity and the potential to address important unmet medical needs.