Most cancers continues to be a giant draw for biotech buyers, and most cancers analysis is effectively represented up to now week’s financing exercise. Seven biotech firms introduced financing rounds to assist a spread of tumor-targeting therapeutic approaches that embody small molecules, oncolytic viruses, and peptide medication.
Peptides are the main focus of FogPharma, which raised the most important financing spherical of the Thanksgiving holiday-shortened week. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech is growing a brand new class of peptide medication that deal with therapeutic targets deemed “undruggable.” FogPharma is led by CEO Greg Verdine, a former Harvard professor who has grow to be a biotech entrepreneur. Verdine can be chief govt of LifeMine Therapeutics, a GSK-partnered startup that analyzes fungal genes to find new medication.
Arch Enterprise Companions and Invus are among the many monetary backers of LifeMine, and people corporations additionally participated in FogPharma’s new $178 million spherical of funding. The Sequence D financing comes because the biotech prepares for its first scientific trial. The corporate says polypeptide medication from its Helicon platform mix the concentrating on skills of antibodies with the options of small molecule medication: broad tissue distribution, intracellular goal engagement, and oral dosing. Lead program FOG-001 is designed to dam TCF-blocking beta-catenin to deal with a dysregulated signaling pathway present in an estimated 20% of all human cancers.
In preclinical analysis, FogPharma says FOG-001 stopped tumor development and led to tumor regression. The corporate plans to submit an investigational new drug software and begin Section 1 testing by mid-2023. The brand new capital may also assist growth of FogPharma’s preclinical pipeline, which addresses different biologically validated however elusive most cancers drug targets resembling TEAD, NRAS, Pan-KRAS, and Cyclin E1.
Right here’s a have a look at the opposite biotech financings for the previous week:
—Practically three months after Roche reached a deal to amass most cancers drug developer Good Therapeutics in a $250 million deal, a spinout from the biotech known as Bonum Therapeutics has raised $93 million in Sequence A financing. Seattle-based Bonum is growing cytokine most cancers therapies for most cancers therapies. These medication can be conditionally activated, that means that they may activate solely when the antibody sensor element of the remedy binds to its goal, which is meant to scale back toxicity.
The know-how that’s the foundation for Bonum’s medication was validated by Good. Good’s monetary backers, together with Rivervest Enterprise Companions, Roche Enterprise Fund, Digitalis Ventures, 3×5 Companions, and Codon Capital, teamed up once more for Bonum’s Sequence A financing, which added a brand new investor, Vivo Capital.
—Scientific-stage CG Oncology closed a $120 million Sequence E financing. The Irvine, California-based biotech’s lead drug candidate, CG0070, is an oncolytic virus that has reached Section 3 testing as a monotherapy for non-muscle invasive bladder most cancers that doesn’t reply to Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, the most typical intravesical immunotherapy used for treating early-stage bladder most cancers. A Section 2 research can be underway testing CG0070 together with Merck immunotherapy Keytruda. CG Oncology stated it can use the brand new capital to advance its lead applications towards FDA overview and broaden its drug pipeline to deal with different unmet wants in urologic most cancers.
—CatalYM closed a €50 million Sequence C financing to increase Section 2 scientific testing of its lead program, which is in growth for treating strong tumors. The antibody drug candidate, visugromab, is engineered to neutralize Progress Differentiation Issue-15 (GDF-15), a tumor-produced protein that regulates immune cell activation and stops immune cells from infiltrating tumor tissue. Visugromab’s strong tumor check is evaluating the drug together with a sort of immunotherapy that blocks the checkpoint protein PD-1. Preliminary information are anticipated in early 2023. Munich, Germany-based CatalYM’s new spherical of financing was co-led by Brandon Capital and Jeito Capital.
—Casma Therapeutics closed $46 million in Sequence C financing to deliver its lead program for MYD88 mutant lymphoma via the preclinical analysis that may assist an investigational new drug software. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm develops therapies that leverage autophagy, a mechanism for recycling outdated or broken mobile elements. An analogous strategy known as focused protein degradation focuses solely on proteins and peptides. However autophagy can deal with bigger mobile elements resembling organelles.
—Rezo Therapeutics, a College of California at San Francisco spinout that’s growing new most cancers medication, launched with $78 million. The know-how of the San Francisco-based firm identifies how mutations rewire cancer-driving networks, utilizing that perception to uncover tumor-specific drug targets. This tech platform comes from UCSF’s Quantitative Biosciences Institute. Rezo’s Sequence A financing was led by SR One, a16z Bio + Well being, and Norwest Enterprise Companions.
—Opna Bio, a startup growing most cancers therapies acquired from Plexxikon, unveiled $38 million in Sequence A financing. The corporate’s co-founders embody Douglas Hanahan, a distinguished scholar within the Lausanne Department of the Ludwig Institute for Most cancers Analysis and emeritus professor on the Swiss Federal Institute of Expertise Lausanne. Opna’s launch and financing comes as analysis from Hanahan’s EPFL laboratory was printed within the journal Science describing the position of fragile X psychological retardation protein (FMPL) as an immuno-oncology goal. Opna has licensed this FMPL know-how. Longitude Capital and Northpond Ventures led the Sequence A spherical of Opna, which maintains operations in Lausanne, Switzerland, and South San Francisco.
—In non-cancer biotech funding information, MBX Biosciences raised $115 million to develop therapies in a brand new class of peptide medication, together with a lead program in early-stage scientific growth for hypoparathyroidism. Carmel, Indiana-based MBX says its precision endocrine peptides, or PEPS, overcome limitations of conventional peptide medication. Along with supporting lead PEP product candidate MBX 2109, MBX stated the brand new capital will assist its preclinical drug pipeline. The Sequence B spherical of funding was led by Wellington Administration.
—Bain Capital Life Sciences led a $107 million funding in Jnana Therapeutics because the biotech continues Section 1 testing that might show scientific proof of idea for its lead program, a possible remedy for phenylketonuria. The inherited metabolic dysfunction results in a deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxylase, an enzyme required to interrupt down an amino acid known as phenylalanine. Jnana’s drug, JNT-517, is small molecule designed to dam phenylalanine reabsorption within the kidney, which in flip reduces blood ranges of phenylalanine.
Separate from Jnana’s Sequence C financing, the biotech introduced a second collaboration with Roche centered on the invention of small molecule medication for most cancers, immune-mediated illnesses, and neurological issues. The Swiss pharmaceutical large is paying Jnana $50 million up entrance; milestone funds may attain as much as $2 billion.
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