US-based small molecule drug developer LifeMine Therapeutics has secured $50m of series B funding from investors including internet and technology group Alphabet and pharmaceutical firms WuXi AppTec and Merck & Co.
Milky Way Investments co-led the round with LifeMine co-founder and chairman Rick Klausner while Foresite Capital, Arch Ventures and Blue Pool Capital also invested. WuXi AppTec, Alphabet and Merck took part through WuXi Healthcare Ventures, GV and MRL Ventures Fund respectively.
LifeMine is studying fungi with a view to developing medicines to address a range of difficult-to-treat diseases. It has also developed a collection of more than 100,000 living fungal strains sourced from pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Schering and Pfizer.
The company’s drug discovery platform is based on research by Gregory Verdine, a Harvard University professor and venture partner at WuXi Healthcare Ventures. LifeMine said it has now raised over $120m of funding since it was founded in 2017.
The series B funding will be used to speed up and expand LifeMine’s drug discovery activities and allow it to advance some of its programmes to the clinical development stage.
WuXi Healthcare Ventures provided $5m of seed funding for the company in 2016 and led a $55m series A round the following year that included GV and MRL Ventures Fund.
The series A round also featured Alexandria Venture Investments, the venture capital vehicle for life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, as well as Foresite Capital, Arch Ventures, Boyu Capital and Blue Pool Capital.