Receptor.AI (US Techbio) and Sethera Therapeutics Announce Monday August 3, 2026 an Integrated Discovery Alliance for AI-Guided Polymacrocyclic Peptide Medicines Combining Sethera's Proprietary Polymacrocyclic Peptide Chemistry (Installs 1-6 Stable Cross-Links to Generate Polymacrocyclic, Nested, In-Line, and Interpeptide Structures Across Large Encoded Libraries and Explores Multiple Experimentally Accessible Topologies Rather Than a Single Predetermined Structural Motif) With Receptor.AI's Physics-Based Modeling, Artificial Intelligence, and Multiparameter Optimization; The Closed-Loop Discovery and Optimization Workflow Targets Historically Hard-to-Drug Therapeutic Targets That Resist Small-Molecule and Antibody Approaches
Receptor.AI and Sethera Therapeutics announced Monday August 3, 2026 an integrated discovery alliance for AI-guided polymacrocyclic peptide medicines. Under the collaboration: Sethera generates and experimentally screens architecture-diverse polymacrocyclic peptide libraries; Receptor.AI applies physics-based modeling, artificial intelligence, and multiparameter optimization to interpret sequence, architecture, enrichment, and activity data and guide focused optimization cycles. The companies then design, synthesize, and experimentally test new candidates, feeding the resulting data into each subsequent cycle in a closed-loop discovery workflow. Sethera's platform installs 1-6 stable cross-links to generate polymacrocyclic, nested, in-line, and interpeptide structures across large encoded libraries, and (unlike constrained-peptide approaches centered on a predetermined structural motif) explores multiple experimentally accessible topologies. The collaboration targets historically hard-to-drug therapeutic targets that resist small-molecule and antibody approaches. The macrocyclic peptide modality has been commercially validated in 2026 through Merck's LIPFENDRA (enlicitide, FDA-approved July 16, 2026) as the first once-daily oral macrocyclic peptide PCSK9 inhibitor with $315/month launch pricing; Sethera and Receptor.AI aim to extend the modality to additional receptor targets.