- First participant dosed in Phase 1/2 PROSPER trial of FMC-376 in KRASG12C Cancers
- FMC-376 is a first-in-class direct dual inhibitor of ON+OFF KRASG12C
- FMC-376 has the potential to transform patient outcomes with its ability to overcome both innate and acquired resistance mechanisms and brain metastases
BOSTON and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Frontier Medicines Corporation, a precision medicine company seeking to unlock the proteome to advance transformational therapies against otherwise undruggable disease-causing targets, today announced the close of an oversubscribed $80 million Series C financing. The financing was co-led by Deerfield Management Company and Droia Ventures, with significant participation from Galapagos NV (Euronext & NASDAQ: GLPG) as a strategic investor, and contributions from new and existing investors including DCVC Bio, MPM Capital, and RA Capital Management. This Series C financing brings the total capital raised since Frontier’s founding to $235.5 million.
“At Galapagos, we are focused on breakthrough science and innovation to address high unmet medical needs,” said Dr. Paul Stoffels1, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Galapagos. “Frontier Medicines is a leading chemoproteomics company with a unique technology platform and a pipeline of potential best-in-class assets that fit with Galapagos’ precision oncology R&D approach. The participation in Frontier Medicines' Series C round aligns with our innovation acceleration strategy to bring transformational medicines to patients around the world.”
Financing proceeds will support the advancement of multiple wholly-owned pipeline programs into clinical studies, including FMC-376. Frontier today announced the first participant dosed in the Phase 1/2 PROSPER clinical trial (NCT 06244771) evaluating FMC-376 in patients with KRASG12C cancers.
“Today we mark the first participant dosed with a therapeutic candidate born from the Frontier™ Platform, alongside a financing that affirms continued strong investor support. Frontier Medicines has amassed a robust data set that shows FMC-376 is expected to overcome the resistance seen with prior generation single-acting inhibitors, and we are excited to demonstrate this potential in the clinical setting,” said Chris Varma, Ph.D., chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Frontier Medicines. “This represents a major milestone for the Frontier team in our mission to deliver transformational medicines for patients in need. We look forward to further progress on our pipeline of wholly-owned precision medicine programs later this year.”
FMC-376 was discovered by applying the Frontier™ Platform to directly engage both ON+OFF KRASG12C with exquisite selectivity. Preclinical data featured at the AACR Annual Meeting 2023 demonstrate FMC-376 is >1,000-fold more effective at blocking key effector protein interactions versus prior generation single-acting inhibitors, leading to rapid and durable suppression of KRASG12C signaling. FMC-376 is an orally bioavailable small molecule that has shown efficacy in vivo across a broad array of KRASG12C mutant non-small cell lung (NSCLC), pancreatic and colorectal cancer models, as well as models of NSCLC brain metastases, which is anticipated to drive enhanced efficacy and prolonged durability. The differentiated dual direct mechanism of action of FMC-376 offers the potential to overcome the lack of response and resistance seen with current KRASG12C single-acting treatments.
The Phase 1/2 PROSPER clinical trial is an open-label, multi-center dose escalation and expansion study designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of FMC-376 in participants with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic solid tumors which harbor the KRASG12C mutation. For more information on the PROSPER trial, please visit clinicaltrials.gov.
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1 Throughout this press release, ‘Dr. Paul Stoffels’ should be read as ‘Dr. Paul Stoffels, acting via Stoffels IMC BV’
About Frontier Medicines
Frontier Medicines is a clinical stage precision medicine company pioneering groundbreaking medicines to transform treatment for genetically-defined patient populations, starting with oncology and immunology. Our proprietary chemoproteomics powered drug discovery engine, the Frontier™ Platform, leverages covalent chemistry and machine learning to unlock hard-to-treat disease causing proteins for drug development. Today, we are advancing a diversified pipeline of wholly-owned precision medicines against the most important drivers of cancer and high-value immunology programs. Our lead candidate, FMC-376, is a dual inhibitor of on+off KRASG12C. FMC-376 is a potential best-in-class therapy designed to completely block both forms of the KRAS mutation to overcome the lack of response and resistance seen with single-acting KRASG12C inhibitors. For more information, please visit www.frontiermeds.com. Follow Frontier on LinkedIn.
Frontier Medicines Contact:
Victoria Fort
VP, Corporate Affairs
202.361.0445
Victoria.Fort@frontiermeds.com
