Riltide Medicines secures seed funding to advance AI-driven oral therapies for autoimmune diseases

On October 20, Riltide Medicines, a Beijing-based pharmaceutical technology company, announced the completion of a seed funding round totaling tens of millions of RMB. The round was led by NRL Capital with participation from Qingtan Investment. The proceeds will be primarily used to advance preclinical development of the company's core pipeline and enhance its AI-enabled interactive molecular design platform.

Riltide Medicines was founded in 2024 by Dr. Long Wei, a senior drug R&D expert and former Executive Vice President of Jacobio Pharma. The company adopts an R&D model that deeply integrates artificial intelligence (AI) technology with industry experts' practices. Leveraging AI-driven industrial-grade applications for molecular discovery, it focuses on developing innovative oral drugs, aiming to provide safer and more effective treatment options for patients with autoimmune diseases.

"Riltide Medicines is committed to developing differentiated products with global competitiveness. In the field of oral drugs for autoimmune diseases, there remains a large number of unmet clinical needs. We firmly believe that the in-depth integration of AI technology and drug R&D will significantly improve the efficiency and success rate of new drug discovery," said Dr. Long Wei, Founder and CEO of Riltide Medicines. "We would like to thank our investors for their recognition of the company's strategy and team. This funding will help us accelerate the advancement of our core pipeline into the clinical research phase, while further improving our AI-driven interactive molecular design platform."

NRL Capital stated: "We are highly optimistic about Riltide Medicines' strategic direction and innovative capabilities in developing oral small-molecule drugs for autoimmune diseases. The team possesses not only profound industry experience and a track record of 'end-to-end' successful cases across the entire drug development chain but also demonstrates pioneering innovation by fully leveraging AI's enabling role in novel drug design to explore projects with global competitive potential. We anticipate the company will achieve solid progress and steady breakthroughs in its R&D efforts in the coming years."

Qingtan Investment stated: "Oral therapies for autoimmune diseases represent a field with tremendous demand potential. We believe Riltide is positioned to forge a unique path in AI-driven drug discovery, accelerating the development and commercialization of innovative oral treatments for autoimmune conditions."