Fog Pharma, Developer of Cell-Penetrating Mini-Proteins Targeting 'Undruggable' Intracellular Sites, Files for IPO Following $66M Series B Led by TCR Capital and GV
Image from the official website of Fog Pharma
On May 16, 2018, Fog Pharma, a biotechnology start-up based in Boston, announced the completion of its $66 million Series B financing round. The round was led by Allsino Capital, with participation from Google Ventures, BluePool Capital, Horizons Ventures, Nan Fung Group, and Leerink Partners. Existing investors include Deerfield Management, Boyu Capital, WuXi AppTec Venture Fund, and a prominent international consortium of non-institutional investors.
Through its seed and Series A financing rounds, Fog Pharma previously raised $11 million, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $77 million.
Fog Pharma was founded in 2015 by Dr. Gregory Verdine, a tenured professor at Harvard University. Dr. Verdine is a renowned serial entrepreneur in the biotechnology sector, having co-founded companies such as LifeMine Therapeutics, Wave Life Sciences, and Eleven Biotherapeutics. He also previously served as a partner at the prominent venture capital firm Third Rock Ventures.
FogPharma was founded with the aim of discovering a unique drug modality to help cancer patients better extend their lifespan.
Scientific advances have revolutionized the understanding and treatment of cancer in biomedicine, with new therapies approved every year. Nevertheless, the war against cancer cells remains arduous. Issues such as drug response rates, management of durability and tumor recurrence, and toxic side effects mean that most current treatments are far from perfect. Moreover, most therapies for patients with advanced-stage disease come at the cost of their quality of life.
These are also the issues that Fog Pharma aims to address.
This emerging company is dedicated to transcending conventional approaches to discover novel drug molecules. Its core technology is Cell-Penetrating Mini Proteins (CPMP), a new platform developed by Verdine at Harvard University. This technology holds promise for targeting “undruggable” sites, poised to revolutionize drug discovery and development.
Both small-molecule drugs and biologics have their limitations: Biologics can potently target specific sites, but their large size and polarity make it difficult for them to cross cell membranes. As a result, the effective targets of biologics are limited to extracellular ones. For small-molecule drugs, although they can enter cells and target intracellular sites, they are constrained by the surface structure of the targets—small-molecule drugs can only bind to 10% of all potential targets.
The CPMP technology brought by Fog Pharma is expected to break through the current bottlenecks in new drug development. It can be regarded as a hybrid of small-molecule drugs and biologics, combining the potent target-binding affinity of biologics with the cell-penetrating ability of small-molecule drugs. If successful, it will reshape the landscape of new drug development.
Fog Pharma’s pipeline includes multiple new drug molecules, with its first-in-class β-catenin antagonist already in clinical trials. By the end of 2019, the company is expected to advance additional first-in-class candidates into clinical development.
FogPharma Prisident and CEO
Dr. Gregory Verdine
“One of the major challenges facing our era is how to make big biological data on human disease targets actionable. By advancing a novel class of therapeutics, FogPharma aims to combine the cell-penetrating capability of small molecules with the targeting precision of biologics, striving to address this challenge. We are also learning how to discover these new drugs more effectively and rapidly,” said Dr. Verdine, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of FogPharma.
“With 20%–25% of cancer patients having diseases driven by the Wnt pathway, the opportunity to deliver CPMP technology-based therapies to these patients in the short term is enormous. Likewise, we are poised to be the first to target Cbl-b for oncology indications. Such opportunities are truly exceptional,” said Dr. Chen Lianyong, CEO of Allsino & Yucheng Capital. “I am delighted to join this outstanding team of investors in supporting Fog Pharma to realize its vision.”
It is understood that the funds raised in the Series B financing will be used for Phase II clinical trials of a β-catenin antagonist, a drug primarily targeting Wnt pathway-driven cancers. The funds will also accelerate the clinical research of CBL-B inhibitors, a first-in-class new drug and the company’s second project. The third project has not been publicly disclosed, but it is known that the drug is currently at the stage of submitting an Investigational New Drug (IND) application.
Following this round of financing, Lianyong Chen, CEO of Tonghe Yucheng; Krishna Yeshwant, Partner at Google Ventures; and Dr. Rick Klausner (a co-founder of Juno Therapeutics, GRAIL, and Mindstrong) will join the company’s board of directors. Dr. Verdine also serves as an Investment Partner at Tonghe Yucheng Capital.
Source: Tonghe Yucheng, Fog Pharma