US-based small molecule drug developer LifeMine Therapeutics closed a $175m series C round yesterday featuring internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet and pharmaceutical firms Merck & Co and GlaxoSmithKline.
The round was led by investment and financial services group Fidelity Management & Research and included Arch Venture Partners, Blue Pool Capital, Invus and 3W Partners Capital, while Merck and Alphabet invested through MRL Ventures Fund and GV respectively.
Founded in 2017, LifeMine is developing a drug discovery platform called Avatar-Rx which uses a fungi-based genome repository to generate therapies for a range of chronic and currently untreatable conditions. It will use the series C proceeds to strengthen the platform.
GV and MRL Ventures Fund had previously taken part in the company’s $50m series B round in January 2021, investing with pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec’s WuXi Healthcare Ventures subsidiary, Milky Way Investments, Foresite Capital, Arch Venture Partners, Blue Pool and LifeMine co-founder Rick Klausner.
WuXi Healthcare Ventures led a $55m series A round for LifeMine in 2017 with backing from Merck Ventures and Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic investment arm of life sciences-focused real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Gregory Verdine, co-founder and chief executive of LifeMine, said: “This financing will allow us to further scale our Avatar-Rx platform and advance our lead programmes targeting some of the most elusive and high value genetically validated drivers of cancer.
“This financing, together with our recently announced multitarget R&D collaboration with GSK, and factoring in recent scientific and corporate progress, leaves us well-positioned to rapidly advance multiple high-impact precision medicines to solve some of the most intractable challenges facing modern medicine.”
