SETD2

With a drug-development deal already in place with Merck & Co., Curve Therapeutics has now added backing from the venture arm of Pfizer to fund its internal pipeline of cancer therapies against challenging targets.CEO Simon Kerry said the financing “will enable us to expand our team, progress our lead assets into the clinic and to expand our drug discovery platform.” Pfizer Ventures led the £40.5 million ($51 million) Series A financing, which included new investors British Patient Capital and Columbus Venture Partners, as well as former backers Advent Life Sciences and Epidarex Capital.Curve is hoping that its Microcycle platform will enable it to discover biologically active molecules against targets that have been difficult to address using conventional drug discovery methods. The company’s pipeline includes a dual-inhibitor of HIF-1 and HIF-2, as well as an inhibitor of ATIC dimerisation that targets an important vulnerability in multiple cancers.Marie-Claire Peakman, partner at Pfizer Ventures, remarked “Curve's platform provides an exciting new approach designed to tackle tough, high priority targets which have been difficult to progress in the past.” The platform allows functional screening and enrichment of Microcycle libraries within the cytoplasm of mammalian cells to identify compounds that have a desired biological activity against a therapeutic target. Curve noted that the compact size of Microcycles enables their transformation to non-peptide small molecules for lead optimisation and development.The deal signed with Merck in 2022 covers modulators of up to five therapeutic targets, initially for oncology and neurology indications, and is potentially worth up to $1.7 billion to Curve. As part of the agreement, the company is undertaking optimisation using its Microcycle technology.

Series A financing led by Pfizer Ventures with new investors Columbus Venture Partners and British Patient Capital which join founding investor Advent Life Sciences and seed investor Epidarex Capital Goal to advance proprietary discovery platform and progress pipeline of assets addressing challenging cancer targets into the clinic SOUTHAMPTON, England, Feb. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Curve Therapeutics ("Curve" or the "Company"), a private biotechnology company pioneering a revolutionary intracellular screening platform addressing complex and challenging disease targets, today announces the close of its successful £40.5 million Series A financing. Pfizer Ventures led the round with participation from Columbus Venture Partners and British Patient Capital, which join founding investor Advent Life Sciences and co-lead from the seed round, Epidarex Capital. Curve's powerful Microcycle® platform enables the direct discovery of biologically active molecules against targets that have been difficult to address using conventional drug discovery methods. Curve has built a discovery pipeline of assets including a first-in-class dual-inhibitor of HIF-1 and HIF-2 that addresses survival mechanisms in more than half of solid tumours, and a first-in-class inhibitor of ATIC dimerization that targets an important vulnerability in multiple cancers. The financing will enable the Company to progress development of these assets rapidly towards clinical development and to expand the discovery platform beyond challenging and complex intracellular protein targets. Simon Kerry, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Curve Therapeutics, said: "This financing will enable us to expand our team, progress our lead assets into the clinic and to expand our drug discovery platform. We welcome our new investors alongside our existing strong syndicate and look forward to working together to take Curve to its next stage of growth." Professor Ali Tavassoli, Chief Scientific Officer of Curve Therapeutics, added: "Curve's Microcycle platform is a powerful tool for drug discovery, enabling an unparalleled advantage in the discovery of functional hits and leads. We look forward to maximising the potential of our platform to further develop a rich pipeline of programmes with the potential to treat unmet clinical needs in a diverse range of diseases, including cancer." Dr. Marie-Claire Peakman, Partner at Pfizer Ventures, commented: "We are delighted to have led this financing and to work with great co-investors and leadership team. Curve's platform provides an exciting new approach designed to tackle tough, high priority targets which have been difficult to progress in the past. We are eager for the Company to progress the platform with the goal of identifying new therapeutics for challenging diseases." Curve's platform allows functional screening and enrichment of highly diverse, gene-encoded, Microcycle libraries within the cytoplasm of mammalian cells to identify library members that have a desired biological activity against a therapeutic target. Importantly, the compact size of Microcycles enables their transformation to non-peptide small molecules for lead optimisation and development, an unparalleled advantage compared to other cyclic peptide technologies. Curve occupies state of the art laboratories at the Southampton Science Park, a move prompted by the expansion of the Company's research team which included the recent appointments of Dr Monika Ermann as Vice President of Drug Discovery, and Dr Sally Price as Vice President of Biology. With four regional Universities and pioneering medical institutions such as the Centre for Cancer Immunology in Southampton, Hampshire is an attractive location for life science companies, and just an hour from key biotech centres in Oxford and London. About Curve Therapeutics Curve Therapeutics is a private biotechnology company pioneering a revolutionary intracellular screening platform to enable the discovery of innovative therapeutics that address complex and challenging disease targets with the potential to transform the lives of patients. Curve originated from world-leading Microcycle® research conducted by Professor Tavassoli's group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. Curve is backed by blue chip investors including Advent Life Sciences, Epidarex Capital, Pfizer Ventures, Columbus Venture Partners and British Patient Capital. Curve has a US$1.7bn global research collaboration with MSD the trade name of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ USA, to discover and validate modulators of up to five therapeutic targets using its Microcycle® technology, initially for oncology and neurology indications. For more information visit: About Curve's Microcycle® platform Curve has developed an IP-protected, mammalian cell platform technology for functional screening and enrichment of diverse hexameric cyclic peptide Microcycle® libraries to identify those library members that have the desired biological activity against a therapeutic target. Curve's platform allows direct screening for biologically active library members inside mammalian cells and facilitates small molecule hit-to-lead programmes. A key advantage of the technology is that both the library and the target are present in all of their native conformations within a cell. Uniquely, the compact size and rigid structure of Microcycles® enables the design of non-peptide small molecule leads. The platform can be used for a wide range of therapeutically relevant targets, including protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions and has been used by Curve to develop a pipeline of cancer programmes against targets including a dual HIF-1/HIF-2 inhibitor and an inhibitor of ATIC homodimerization. SOURCE Curve Therapeutics

Repare Therapeutics said Tuesday it regained full worldwide rights to camonsertib (RP-3500) from Roche, effective May 7. The deal termination, which comes just weeks after a milestone payment, was triggered by a review of the pharma’s pipeline and unnamed “external factors.” The news shaved about 16% off Repare’s share price Tuesday. The precision oncology company, which uses a synthetic lethality approach to develop cancer therapeutics, last month scored a $40-million milestone payment after Roche dosed the first patient with camonsertib in the Phase II TAPISTRY trial. The study is enrolling patients with solid tumours to receive one of 11 different therapies based on their specific oncogenic genomic alterations. According to ClincalTrials.gov, patients are eligible to receive camonsertib if their cancer exhibits a SETD2 or ATM loss of function mutation. Roche had gained rights to camonsertib in a 2022 deal that saw it shell out $125 million upfront. Along with the TAPISTRY payment, Repare had received another $13.6 million in milestones; the company had been eligible for up to $1.2 billion in total. Clinical combos for cancerIn addition to TAPISTRY, the oral ATR inhibitor is being tested in one other trial sponsored by Roche, and at least two separate studies from Repare.“We have been continuously running clinical trials for camonsertib since July 2020 and are excited to steward the progress of this promising therapy,” CEO Lloyd Segal said in a statement. “While we are disappointed to end this collaboration, we appreciate the contributions Roche has made to the programme.”Roche is running the Phase I/II MORPHEUS trial in patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer, which is testing camonsertib in combination with PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq (atezolizumab) and anti-VEGF antibody Avastin (bevacizumab). Repare’s Phase 1 MYTHIC trial is evaluating camonsertib in combination with another programme in its pipeline: lunresertib, an oral small molecule inhibitor of PKMYT1. The trial is enrolling patients with advanced, recurrent tumours with detected CCNE1 amplification, or deleterious alterations in FBXW7 and other STEP2 genes.Additionally, Repare is testing camonsertib with PARP inhibitors to treat solid tumours in the Phase I/II ATTACC trial.