Proxima Bio

Proxima is an AI-native biotechnology company revolutionizing drug discovery by illuminating the dynamic networks of protein interactions that drive biological function. Founded in 2019 and based in New York and Boston, Proxima has built a transformative platform that combines proteome-scale structural data generation with frontier artificial intelligence to unlock proximity-based therapeutics—next-generation medicines that control how proteins interact with one another rather than simply activating or inhibiting single targets. These proximity modalities, including molecular glues and PROTACs, promise to make historically "undruggable" disease targets accessible for the first time.

At the core of Proxima's platform lies two breakthrough technologies working in concert. NeoLink, the company's proprietary data-generation system, uses cross-linking mass spectrometry (XLMS) to produce structural information on protein complexes at proteome-wide scale, capturing spatial relationships between proteins across the entire cellular landscape. This generates unprecedented datasets revealing how proteins interact in three-dimensional space—critical information that has remained largely unmapped, with fewer than 5% of human protein-protein interactions structurally characterized to date. Complementing this data engine is Neo-1, the company's atomistic foundation model series launched in March 2025 and optimized in partnership with NVIDIA. Neo-1 represents a breakthrough in computational drug design: it is the first AI model to unify de novo molecular generation with multimodal structure prediction in a single framework, enabling precision design of small molecules that can induce, modulate, or block specific protein interfaces. By generating latent representations rather than simply predicting atomic coordinates, Neo-1 can design entirely new drug candidates tailored to complex binding pockets and ternary complexes—capabilities essential for molecular glue discovery.

Proxima's business model centers on strategic partnerships with leading biopharmaceutical companies, allowing the firm to simultaneously advance an internal pipeline while providing platform access to external collaborators. The company has secured multi-billion dollar research agreements with Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Blueprint Medicines (acquired by Sanofi), with the Blueprint partnership alone worth up to $1.67 billion in potential milestone payments plus royalties. These collaborations validate Proxima's technology and provide non-dilutive capital to fuel continued platform development and internal programs. In January 2026, Proxima raised an oversubscribed $80 million seed round led by DCVC with participation from NVIDIA's NVentures, Roivant, and other strategic investors—one of the largest seed financings in biotech history. Multiple partnered programs are advancing toward clinical trials, with the first expected to begin in 2026, marking a critical inflection point as the company transitions from pure platform development to demonstrating therapeutic outcomes. Proxima operates at the intersection of artificial intelligence, structural biology, and medicinal chemistry, positioning itself as essential infrastructure for the next wave of pharmaceutical innovation targeting the 95% of the human interactome that remains structurally unexplored.

Keywords: AI drug discovery, proximity therapeutics, molecular glues, PROTACs, protein-protein interactions, structural proteomics, machine learning, undruggable targets, computational biology, biotechnology