Coming off a $107 million series C round in March 2021, FogPharma spirits were high and aspirations for its “universal druggability” platform were through the roof. Now, the company has even more reason to be confident, closing a new gargantuan funding round.
FogPharma has raised $178 million in a series D round backed in part by Arch Venture Partners, the company announced Monday. The latest proceeds will be used to continue advancing the company’s preclinical pipeline now at least six assets deep. The company plans to enter phase 1 trials with its lead asset, FOG-001, a beta-catenin inhibitor, in mid-2023.
In addition to Arch, the full team of investors signing onto the latest round includes Milky Way Investments and Fidelity Management & Research Company. Additionally, Altos Lab founder and chief scientist Rick Klausner, M.D., is joining the company’s board.
“We are thrilled by the support of our investors and will continue to build our platform capabilities, product pipeline which aims to address a significant percentage of cancer patient populations, and our phenomenal team across all levels as we aim to create one of the most impactful new classes of drugs in history,” said CEO Gregory Verdine, Ph.D., in a release. Verdine was also announced as chairman of the company’s board.
FogPharma’s persistent hauls, now $362 million over four rounds, are a testament to the excitement surrounding the company’s helicon polypeptide therapies. The idea is that the therapies combine the accessibility and cell permeability of small molecules with the therapeutic breadth of monoclonal antibodies. FogPharma’s therapies are constructed to hold short chains of amino acids within an alpha-helix formation. The benefit of this build is that its able to expel certain waters, allowing the therapies to penetrate the cell.
Beyond the company’s lead beta-cantenin inhibitor, FogPharma is closing to animal studies with its runner-up asset targeting transcriptional enhanced associate domain. The remaining four assets are in the “iterative optimization” stage.