News

Kanagawa, Japan, 30th July 2026 – FIMECS, Inc. (“FIMECS”), a private biotechnology company creating a new class of drugs based on targeted protein degradation, today announced that FIMECS received a notice of patent allowance*1 in the United States for its substance patent covering IRAK-M*2 targeted protein degraders (heterocyclic compounds) discovered by FIMECS (U.S. Patent Application No. 17/630,203).

The compounds granted patent allowance comprise multiple novel compounds capable of inducing degradation of the IRAK-M protein, including FIM-001, which is currently under preclinical development by FIMECS. This patent broadly covers FIM-001 as well as related analog compounds, thereby further strengthening the intellectual property position of FIM-001 in the United States. This patent application is part of an international patent filing and subsequent national phase entries, and examinations are currently ongoing in other countries and regions. FIMECS received a notice of patent allowance in Japan earlier this year, and the present allowance further strengthens the intellectual property position of FIM-001 in the United States.

IRAK-M is known as a negative regulator of innate immune signaling and has been reported to play a role in tumor-associated immune suppression. The FIMECS’s IRAK-M protein degraders selectively bind to IRAK-M and induce its degradation, thereby activating anti-tumor immune responses. These compounds have demonstrated anti-tumor efficacy in multiple cancer animal models, including models that exhibit resistance to currently prevalent immune checkpoint inhibitors.

The compounds covered by this patent were generated using FIMECS’s proprietary drug discovery platform, RaPPIDS™. FIMECS will continue to advance its drug discovery research utilizing RaPPIDS™, while strengthening and expanding its intellectual property portfolio, and promoting development of its pipeline programs, including FIM-001, toward future commercialization and partnering opportunities.

*1 Patent Allowance
A patent allowance is an evaluation issued by a patent office indicating that an invention is deemed worthy of being granted patent rights following examination. Upon payment of the prescribed patent fees after allowance, the patent is registered and patent rights take effect in the relevant country.

*2 About IRAK-M
IRAK-M (interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 3) is a pseudokinase selectively expressed in myeloid cells and functions as a negative regulator of TLR/IL-1R signaling, thereby suppressing excessive activation of innate immunity. Studies using IRAK-M knockout mice have reported suppressed tumor growth in multiple tumor models. In addition, IRAK-M expression levels have been reported to correlate with patient prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. Based on these findings, degradation of IRAK-M has attracted attention as a novel cancer immunotherapy strategy through the relief of immune suppression.

About FIMECS, Inc.
FIMECS, Inc. is a drug discovery company focused on developing a new class of therapeutics based on targeted protein degradation (TPD) for disease targets that have historically been considered ‘undruggable’, particularly in the field of immuno-oncology and oncology. By integrating its proprietary E3 ligase binders with its drug discovery platform RaPPIDS™ FIMECS has established the capability to efficiently discover drug candidates that induce the degradation of disease-relevant target proteins. Leveraging this platform across both internal research programs and collaborative projects, FIMECS aims to deliver innovative medicines to patients worldwide.
For more information, please visit: https://www.fimecs.com/eng/

About RaPPIDS™
RaPPIDS™ (Rapid Protein Proteolysis Inducer Discovery System) is FIMECS’s proprietary drug discovery platform designed to accelerate the discovery of targeted protein degraders. Based on an E3-agnostic concept, RaPPIDS™ utilizes degradation activity-driven phenotypic screening to efficiently identify optimal target protein–E3 ligase combinations without relying on any specific E3 ligase. This approach enables the discovery of active compounds that may be difficult to identify through conventional binding activity-driven screening approaches while improving the efficiency of the drug discovery process. In addition, proprietary E3 ligase binders discovered through the RaPPIDS™ platform can be applied not only to heterobifunctional degraders but also to molecular glue degraders, thereby expanding the range of therapeutically addressable targets.

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FIMECS, Inc. Media and Investor Contact:
FIMECS, Inc.
26-1, Muraoka-Higashi 2-chome, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 251-0012, Japan
Tel: +81-466-96-0261
E-mail：info@fimecs.com