Brazilian start-up aims to go global with peptide discovery platform

Brazil’s Peptidus Biotech believes it can bring faster peptide molecule discovery to the animal health sector.

The firm’s co-founder and chief executive, Bernardo Petriz, originally set up the business alongside Chief Scientific Officer Octávio Franco, an experienced peptide development specialist.

Dr Franco developed expertise in utilizing artificial intelligence to change the way bioactive peptides are discovered. He built a large database of novel peptides and his work at the Universidade Católica de Brasília was used to develop an anti-ageing peptide that was licenced to US cosmetic company OneSkin.

Dr Petriz said he proposed a new start-up to bring Dr Franco’s research to commercial fruition. The founders had to decide between focusing on the human health space, the animal health sector or continuing their work in the cosmetics area. Peptidus was founded in 2023 and committed to developing peptide products for the animal health industry.

Dr Petriz told S&P Global Animal Health: “It provides a faster path to commercialization for our pharma partners, as development and regulatory pathways are more streamlined compared to human health.”

The company believes peptides can offer high specificity, low toxicity, low immunogenicity and reduced adverse events, while they are also biodegradable.