UK-based drug developer Mission Therapeutics secured $15m in funding yesterday from a consortium led by pharmaceutical firm Pfizer’s strategic investment arm, Pfizer Ventures, that included all its existing investors.
Spun out of University of Cambridge in 2011, Mission is targeting multiple diseases with drug molecules that inhibit deubiquitylating (DUB) enzymes thought to play an integral role in the disruption of several cellular processes.
The company’s lead candidate, USP30, is in preclinical development for indications including acute kidney injury and primary mitochondrial myopathy, a group of genetic mutation-driven disorders that predominantly affect skeletal muscle.
USP30 is also intended to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, progressive lung scarring with unknown causes, as well as familial mitochondrial disease and Parkinson’s disease. The funding is expected to fuel the development of Mission’s core platform and work to broaden its pipeline of DUB inhibitor-based candidates.
Mission has a strategic agreement in place with Pfizer and has expanded that deal with the latest round so that the corporate has evaluation and option rights on certain DUB inhibitor targets, excepting lead programs such as USP30.
The company secured $86m in a 2016 series C round led by Touchstone Innovations (then called Imperial Innovations) with participation from Pfizer Ventures, Roche Venture Fund and SR One – subsidiaries of pharmaceutical firms Roche and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) – respectively.
The series C round also featured Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), now known as Schroder UK Public Private Trust, and Sofinnova Partners.
The same investors, bar WPCT, provided $32m in series B funding for Mission in 2013, following a $9.8m series A backed by Roche, GSK, Imperial Innovations and Sofinnova Partners two years earlier.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.