Frontier Medicines Secures $80 Million Series C Financing to Advance Next-Generation KRAS G12C Inhibitor FMC-376 into Clinical Trials

Feb 24, 2024 21:38 CST Updated 21:38

Frontier Medicines

Proteomics Platform Developer

Recently, Boston and South San Francisco, California – Frontier Medicines, a precision medicine company dedicated to unlocking the proteome to advance breakthrough therapies targeting previously undruggable disease-causing targets, announced the completion of an oversubscribed $80 million Series C financing. The round was co-led by Deerfield Management Company and Droia Ventures, with Galapagos NV (Euronext & NASDAQ: GLPG) participating as a strategic investor. New and existing investors, including DCVC Bio, MPM Capital, and RA Capital Management, also joined the round. This Series C financing brings Frontier’s total funding to $235.5 million since its inception.

Galapagos CEO and Chairman of the Board, Dr. Paul Stoffels, said:"InGalapagos, we are focused on breakthrough science and innovation to address highly unmet medical needs. Frontier Medicines is a leading chemoproteomics company with a unique technology platform and potentially first-in-class assets, in line withGalapagosThe precise oncology R&D approach. Participating in Frontier Medicines' Series C financing aligns with our innovation acceleration strategy, bringing transformative drugs to patients worldwide."

The proceeds from the financing will support multiple wholly-owned pipeline projects entering clinical research, including FMC-376. Frontier Medicines Corporation announced today that the first participant in the Phase 1/2 PROSPER clinical trial (NCT 06244771) has been dosed to evaluate FMC-376 in patients with KRAS G12C cancers.

Chris Varma, Ph.D., Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Frontier Medicines, stated:"Today, we mark the dosing of the first participant with a candidate therapeutic from our Frontier™ platform alongside a financing that affirms continued strong support from our investors. Frontier Medicines has amassed a robust set of data showing that FMC-376 has the potential to overcome resistance seen with the prior generation of single-agent inhibitors, and we are excited to demonstrate this potential in the clinic. This is an important milestone in the mission of the Frontier team to deliver transformative medicines to patients in need. We look forward to further progress across our wholly owned pipeline later this year."

FMC-376 was discovered through the application of the Frontier™ platform, leveraging precise selectivity to directly engage with both the active and inactive states of KRAS G12C. Preclinical data presented at the 2023 AACR Annual Meeting demonstrated that FMC-376 is over 1,000 times more effective than the previous generation of single-action inhibitors in blocking key effector protein interactions, enabling rapid and durable inhibition of KRAS G12C signaling. FMC-376 is an orally bioavailable small molecule that has shown in vivo activity across a wide range of KRAS G12C-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), pancreatic cancer, and colorectal cancer models, as well as in NSCLC brain metastasis models, which is expected to enhance efficacy and prolong tolerability. The differentiated dual direct-acting mechanism of FMC-376 offers the potential to overcome the current lack of response and resistance associated with KRAS G12C single-action therapies.

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