BEIJING – Five-year-old Jacobio Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., of Beijing, has found itself a strong global partner to help advance its two SHP2 inhibitors, JAB-3068 and JAB-3312, both financially and later in the regulatory process. The Chinese startup will work with pharma giant Abbvie Inc., of North Chicago, to develop and commercialize the programs.
The activity of many proteins is controlled through phosphorylation by kinases and dephosphorylation by phosphatases. Overactive kinases are one of the major drivers of tumors and, as a result, kinase inhibitors are a mainstay of oncology drug development. But “activation of the brakes, the phosphatases, could be equally therapeutically viable for the treatment of a broad range of cancers” to kinase inhibition, Goutham Narla told the audience at the 2020 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting.
Revolution Medicines Inc., a California-based company developing a small-molecule inhibitor of SHP2 in partnership with Sanofi SA and other programs targeting mutant forms of the key signaling protein RAS, has raised a $100 million series C equity financing led by Boxer Capital LLC, an investment firm funded by British businessman Joe Lewis' Tavistock Group, which has backed financings of companies including G1 Therapeutics Inc., Kura Oncology Inc. and, more recently, Encoded Therapeutics Inc.