It’s estimated that over 85% of cancer targets are undruggable using conventional drug discovery techniques. Most existing techniques can only identify potential drug candidates based on how they interact with a target in a controlled, artificial environment, but fail to work when adapted to therapeutics in a live cell. This is where Curve Therapeutics, a Southampton-based private biotech startup makes a difference as it does the screening in the cell.
Now, the intracellular screening platform has closed a £40.5 million Series A financing. Pfizer Ventures (backed Jnana Therapeutics) led the round with participation from Columbus Venture Partners and British Patient Capital (invested £10 million in this round), which joined founding investor Advent Life Sciences and co-lead from the seed round, Epidarex Capital.
Curve will use the funding to accelerate its drug candidates toward human trials and develop more options for its pipeline.
Cancer drug discovery platform
Founded in 2019 by Simon Kerry and Ali Tavassoli, Curve Therapeutics works with the mission to unlock the therapeutic potential of complex and challenging disease targets that are intractable to conventional discovery methods. The drug discovery specialist will discover and validate modulators of up to five therapeutic targets using its Microcycle technology.
The company’s Microcycle platform enables the direct discovery of biologically active molecules against targets that have been difficult to address using conventional drug discovery methods. It enables the direct discovery of biologically active molecules against targets, even allosteric or cryptic sites, that have been difficult to address using conventional drug discovery methods. The platform allows rapid enrichment of highly diverse genetically encoded Microcycle (cyclic peptide) libraries in the cytoplasm of mammalian cells to identify library members that have a desired biological activity against a therapeutic target.
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 dimerisation that targets an important vulnerability in multiple cancers.
The 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.
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.
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 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 to identify new therapeutics for challenging diseases.”
