CS-060380

The money continues to flow for private obesity and MASH drug developers. The latest pool of capital is headed to a Shanghai biotech called Cascade Pharmaceuticals. The company disclosed a nearly 500 million yuan (about $72 million) financing round via an announcement on WeChat this week. The biotech, founded in December 2017, previously disclosed a 140 million yuan round in August 2023 and two “nearly” 100 million yuan rounds in 2020 and 2022. While many Chinese drug developers have forged partnerships with Western biopharmas during a flurry of cross-border deals, it appears Cascade is developing its pipeline independently and has global rights to all of the experimental medicines listed on its website. Cascade has conducted clinical trials in both China and the US. The Chinese drug development sector has ballooned in recent years thanks to a spike in R&D on new medicines, a surge in the number of clinical trials, and a proliferation of new startups. Multiple Western pharmaceutical companies have gone to China for obesity assets. On Tuesday, Kailera’s China partner Hengrui reported oral GLP-1 data, and AstraZeneca also disclosed clinical data for an oral GLP-1 asset that the UK pharma licensed from China and US biotech Eccogene. Cascade is in Phase 3 with an FXR-targeted small molecule called linafexor, or CS0159. The investigational medicine is in Phase 3 in China in primary biliary cholangitis. Linafexor is also in earlier stages of clinical testing for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity and primary sclerosing cholangitis. Cascade said the asset has completed Phase 2 for MASH in the US. FXR is a target quite familiar to the MASH field. The FDA rejected Intercept Pharmaceuticals’ Ocaliva for MASH, but others are still delving into the mechanism. Eli Lilly paid $9 million upfron t last winter for access to an FXR agonist in development for MASH and ulcerative colitis. MASH has been a hot dealmaking area for drugmakers since Madrigal Pharmaceuticals was able to secure the first FDA treatment approval for the fatty liver disease in March 2024. Madrigal’s Rezdiffra is a partial agonist of the thyroid hormone beta-receptor, or THR-β. Cascade has a program for that target as well. The biotech’s THR-β tablet, codenamed CS060380, recently entered Phase 2 for MASH in China. Cascade has previously said its candidate is “highly specific to liver tissue” and had “superior preclinical data compared to MGL-3196 [Rezdiffra].” Cascade’s work in obesity also includes small molecule and peptide “triple G” candidates that go after receptors of GLP-1, GIP and GCG. Lilly and others are also developing triple G medicines in the race to create more powerful weight loss medications. The company also has an asset called CS060304 in clinical testing for people with elevated levels of LDL-C, commonly referred to as “bad” cholesterol. Cascade said it works on “nuclear receptors” and G protein-coupled receptors. GPCRs are a common area for drug developers, including those in obesity.