AI that designs how medicines are released in the body.

Many good drugs need daily drops or repeat injections because nothing holds them in the body for long. Amphora is building AI that designs polymers to release them over months.

Our technology Our focus

A drug's dosing schedule is often set by the material it is delivered in. Amphora designs that material for each drug and predicts how it will release before anything is made.

How the engine works

Most long-acting medicines are adapted to a short list of existing polymers. Amphora designs a new polymer for each drug, using generative, physics-based and chemistry-rule models.

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  1. Design

    Generative models propose polymers against a full specification: release profile, safety, manufacturability and commercial viability.

  2. Predict

    Physics-based models rank candidates by how they will release the drug, before any material is synthesized.

  3. Learn

    Each batch is predicted before it is made, and the gap between prediction and measurement retrains the models.

Beyond the eyeThe same engine applies to long-acting injectables, device coatings, bioresorbable implants and animal health.

Long-acting therapies, starting in the eye

Approved drugs, small doses and fast lab readouts make the eye the clearest place to prove the engine.

Retinal disease

Wet AMD, diabetic macular edema and retinal vein occlusion are treated with injections into the eye every one to three months. A depot that releases the drug steadily could mean far fewer of them.

After eye surgery

After cataract and other eye surgery, patients put in steroid and anti-inflammatory drops several times a day for weeks, and many miss doses. A depot placed during surgery would deliver the full course on its own.

Dry eye in dogs

Dogs with dry eye need drops or ointment twice a day for life, which owners struggle to keep up. A long-acting depot would replace most of that routine.

Inherited retinal disease

Many inherited retinal diseases are caused by genes too large for the AAV viruses used in gene therapy today. Nonviral polymer carriers can hold much larger genetic cargo.

The name

An amphora is the vessel the ancient Mediterranean used to store and carry oil and wine.

We design vessels at molecular scale: polymers that hold a drug and release it over time.

Founders

Jeff Riley

Co-founder

Jeff Riley

Chief Executive Officer

Took three companies public; raised more than $1.5B for deep-science ventures.

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Alex Boches

Co-founder

Alex Boches

Chief Product Officer

Commercialized AI for scientific discovery. Multi-time biotech founder with an exit.

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Adam Breashears

Co-founder

Adam Breashears

Chief Technology Officer

25 years in AI and autonomous systems. Ran AI engineering at Metis.

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Scientific and development team

Ira Spector

Ira Spector, PhD

Head of Clinical Development

Wyeth and Allergan. More than 35 approved drugs.

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Michael Boyne

Michael Boyne, PhD

Regulatory Strategy

Former FDA research chemist and VP of Product Development at COUR. Co-founder of CatalystBio.

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Ray Stapleton

Ray Stapleton, PhD

CMC Lead

20 years at Merck, including the Gardasil and Keytruda launches. Former CTO at Vaxart and Genocea.

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Jepson Taylor

Jepson Taylor

AI R&D

Co-founded Zeff.ai (acquired by DataRobot).

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Dean Farmer

Dean Farmer, PhD

IP Lead

Materials and formulation patent estates.

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Wes Spence

Wes Spence

VP Partnerships

25 years closing partnership deals.

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Advisors: Stephen Gately (TD2, CRO) and Yu Ge, PhD (formulation, medicinal chemistry, DMPK).

We partner with companies and researchers working on new polymer materials, in medicine and beyond.

info@amphora.bio