Oral peptide specialist Pinnacle Medicines has secured an $89 million series B with backing from investors in the U.S. and China, bringing the company’s total fundraising haul to $134 million.
OrbiMed, which has backed Pinnacle since its inception in 2024, also pitched in for the new raise, alongside LAV, Foresite Capital, Quan Capital, Hankang Capital, RA Capital Management and Logos Capital.
The funds are meant to power Pinnacle’s preclinical pipeline through early clinical tests, while also fueling continued discovery and research work, the biotech said in a March 26 release. The China- and Pennsylvania-based outfit’s initial focus will be on immunology and cardiometabolic indications.
“We have assembled an experienced peptide drug discovery and development team spanning all key disciplines and built a proprietary platform that integrates emerging AI technologies with physics-based simulations to rationally design and optimize peptide therapeutics,” Pinnacle co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Chengzao Sun, Ph.D., said in the release. “The rapid progression of our pipeline reflects the strength of this approach and positions us to advance a new generation of oral peptide medicines for chronic diseases.”
Sun is an experienced drug hunter, having previously led peptide discovery efforts at Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Amylin Pharmaceuticals (now part of Bristol Myers Squibb).
Related
Pinnacle’s CEO Jonathan Wang was previously an investor with OrbiMed, and also once served as chief business officer at Zai Lab, according to his official biography.
Oral delivery of peptides like GLP-1s has become a hot area, with many looking to capitalize on the chance to make the commonly prescribed class of injectable medicines easier to take as pills. Novo Nordisk launched an oral form of its blockbuster Wegovy at the beginning of the year, which has already seen strong uptake, and recently inked a $2.1 billion pact with Vivtex to formulate new oral delivery methods.
Merck, too, wants to make onerous peptide injections easier to swallow. The New Jersey pharma licensed Cyprumed’s oral peptide delivery platform for $493 million last summer.
Longtime oral peptide leader Protagonist Therapeutics, which secured a groundbreaking oral psoriasis approval in partnership with Johnson & Johnson earlier this month, has also decided to get in on the obesity pill action. The biotech nominated an oral obesity candidate in June 2025 that is now set to enter phase 1 development by the end of this year, according to Protagonist’s website.
