Massachusetts Cancer Startup to Fund Mission of Drugging the Undruggable with $107M Series C Round

FogPharma, a Massachusetts-based startup, announced a $107 million Series C financing, which will be used for the advancement of its first-and only-in-class direct β-catenin antagonist to potentially address 20% of cancers as well as build a pipeline of high-impact Helicon drug candidates against biologically validated targets that have previously been undruggable.

Proprietary Platforms

FogPharma develops a new class of medicines called cell-penetrating mini proteins (CPMPs) that target cancer-causing proteins inside cancer cells and neutralize them. While biologics are effective against their targets, many are too large or polar to traverse the cell membrane. As a result, they are often only useful in about 10% of all targets. The CPMPs can drug target beyond conventional therapeutics’ reach due to their small size, allowing them to easily traverse the cell membrane.

FogPharma’s CPMPs encompass three platforms; Helicons, Prolocks, and Griptides. FogPhama’s proprietary Helicon™ peptides represent a new class of precision medicines that combines the targeting strength and specificity of antibodies with the cell penetration of small molecules. These hyperstabilized α-helical peptides have broad tissue distribution, intracellular target engagement, and oral dosing optionality.

FogPharma has its own Helicon peptide drug discovery engine that integrates directed evolution, proprietary helix hyperstabilization chemistry, highly multiplexed drug optimization technology, and AI to go along with their multiscale manufacturing. All of this allows them to rapidly discover Helicon peptide therapeutics against important, previously intractable targets with broad applicability to virtually all disease areas.

The funding from the Series C financing will allow FogPharma to advance its Helicon peptides aimed at addressing substantial cancer patient populations into clinical development. These peptides include the company’s first-and-only-in-class direct β-catenin inhibitor and the YAP/TAZ (effectors in the hippo signaling pathway) blocker TEAD antagonist.

Dysregulation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway has been shown to occur in at least 20% of all human cancers, and being able to treat this pathway has definite application in the increase in treatment efficacy. FogPharma’s lead antagonist has been shown to surgically disrupt the interaction of β-catenin with its downstream transcription factor, TCF, thereby disrupting signal transmission through the oncogenic arm of the Wnt pathway.

The first-in-class YAP/TAZ-blocker TEAD antagonist is the only molecule presently in development that binds the fully activated form of TEAD. The YAP/TAZ-TEAD interface is part of the Hippo pathway, the signaling pathway that controls organ size through cell proliferation, where dysregulation has also been shown to occur in many cancers.

Financial Details

The Series C round was led by venBio Partners, with participation from new investors Cormorant Asset Management, Farallon Capital Management, and Invus, funds along with existing investors, including GV, 6 Dimensions Capital, Deerfield Management, and Blue Pool Capital also participated in the oversubscribed round.

With the completion of the Series C financing, FogPharma raised more than $180 million from leading life science investors since its founding in 2016. Along with their 16 investors, FogPharma has 8 C-level members, two of which came from the founding pair that developed the initial technology at Harvard’s Gregory Verdine lab.

The privately held company is currently estimated to bring $10 million to $50 million annually and employ approximately 70 people. While the company is growing and clearly inspiring investor confidence, it will be interesting to see how it fares in such a competitive environment as oncology.

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Author

Eduardo Longoria