ProteinQure Receives $1.8M from FedDev Ontario to Advance AI-Powered Drug Delivery
TORONTO, Ontario, May 27, 2026 – ProteinQure Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging machine learning and generative AI to design precision therapeutics, announced it has received $1.8 million in funding from the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario’s Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative. The funding will support the advancement of ProteinQure’s AI-powered targeted drug delivery platform, with the goal of making treatments easier to produce, more cost-effective, and safer for patients.
The investment was announced by the Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for FedDev Ontario, as part of a nearly $16.5 million investment in 13 Greater Toronto Area businesses and organizations working to accelerate AI adoption and bring new AI technologies to market.
“Support like this is significant not only for ProteinQure, but for the broader Canadian ecosystem,” said Lucas Siow, CEO of ProteinQure. “Clinical-stage biotech is capital-intensive and high-risk. Programs like the Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative send an important signal to investors, recruits, and partners around the world that Canada is serious about building AI-driven companies that can move from lab to clinic.”
ProteinQure’s platform integrates machine learning, structural biology, and atomic-level simulations to design therapeutic peptides from a design space spanning thousands of non-canonical amino acids. The company’s lead asset, PQ203, is a peptide-drug conjugate for triple-negative breast cancer and among the first AI-designed peptide therapeutics to enter clinical development. It is now in Phase I clinical trials at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and other leading cancer hospitals.
“Last year, we dosed the first patient in a Phase I clinical trial of PQ203 here in Toronto at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre,” added Siow. “That full arc—from algorithm to patient—happened in Canada. Having clinical trials here means the first patients to potentially benefit are Canadians.”
“This funding allows us to train cutting-edge generative AI models purpose-built for peptide design — models that go far beyond the 20 canonical amino acids to explore vast chemical spaces of non-canonical building blocks,” said Mark Fingerhuth, Chief R&D Officer and Head of ML at ProteinQure. “That’s what unlocks truly differentiated therapeutics, and this grant gives us the resources to scale that work right here in Canada.”
The FedDev Ontario funding will support ProteinQure’s continued work on AI-powered targeted delivery technologies. These efforts are aimed at expanding the impact of precision therapeutics by improving the ability to deliver medicines to the right tissues and cells, while reducing complexity, cost, and safety challenges.
“There has never been a more exciting time to build at the intersection of AI and the life sciences,” said Siow. “The therapeutics market is globally competitive, and companies need to move quickly, do world-class research, and be willing to take risks. We are grateful to FedDev Ontario for supporting this ambition and proud to keep building in Toronto.”
ProteinQure gratefully acknowledges support from the Government of Canada and FedDev Ontario through the Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative.
About ProteinQure
ProteinQure Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, that designs best-in-class peptide therapeutics. At the core is ProteinStudio™, a proprietary platform that integrates machine learning, structural biology, and atomic-level simulations to design therapeutic peptides using thousands of non-natural amino acids, enabling tissue-specific delivery and access to novel target classes. The company’s lead asset, PQ203, a peptide-drug conjugate for triple-negative breast cancer, is currently in a Phase I clinical trial. For more information, visit www.proteinqure.com.