South Korean companies Ubix Therapeutics Inc. and SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. are partnering to develop targeted protein degradation cancer therapies.
South Korean companies Ubix Therapeutics Inc. and SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. are partnering to develop targeted protein degradation cancer therapies.
Just weeks after signing a targeted RNA degrader deal with Arrakis Inc., Amgen Inc. has enlisted protein degrader specialist Plexium Inc. to a new deal in the high-profile field. "We're on the cusp of a new era of drug discovery, where medicines could function very differently than conventional ones do today," said Amgen's senior vice president of global research, Ray Deshaies.
Lucrative partnerships lately in the targeted protein degradation (TPD) space have shone an even brighter light on the already-intriguing approach, and among the firms to spark enthusiasm is Monte Rosa Therapeutics Inc., pursuing programs aimed solely at drugs that deploy molecular “glue” – an E3 ligase enzyme affixed to a target substrate.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has begun a three-year collaboration with researchers at Australia’s WEHI, looking into a potentially powerful approach to targeted protein degradation also being studied by its German rival Merck KGaA.
LONDON – Phoremost Ltd. has raised $46 million in an oversubscribed series B that will enable it to put clinical heft behind its claim to have developed a novel approach to finding and drugging inscrutable targets.
LONDON – Targeted protein degradation (TPD) specialist Amphista Therapeutics Ltd. has delivered yet another demonstration of investor interest in the field, closing a $53 million series B.
Seed Therapeutics Inc. signed a massive deal with Eli Lilly and Co. on Nov. 12, a date that resonated deeply with Seed’s CEO, Lan Huang. Twenty-one years earlier to the day she published a pioneering paper on cancer signaling pathways involving p53 degradation in Science. “It’s a magical coincidence that exactly 21 years later we have this deal with Lilly,” she told BioWorld, a deal with protein degradation at its core. In the new research collaboration and license agreement, Seed will receive $10 million cash up front to fund research along with a $10 million equity investment from Lilly.
In a BIO Digital session on “The Convergence of Health and Tech: Personalizing Medicine Beyond the Imaginable,” panelist Ray Deshaies, Amgen Inc.’s senior vice president of global research, said he was excited for the future of drug research, noting that there is an evolving trend away from the development of monospecific drugs designed to exert their effect on just one specific target.
DUBLIN – Lycia Therapeutics Inc. raised $50 million in series A funding from founding investor Versant Ventures to take forward yet another novel concept in targeted protein degradation. The new company, which will be headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, is building on the work of Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, who has invented bifunctional structures called Lytacs – lysosomal targeting chimeras – which target extracellular or circulating proteins for internalization and lysosomal degradation by tethering them to lysosome targeting receptors at the cell surface.
