The new funding came from Sectoral Asset Management, a new investor in the syndicate, as well as existing investors. In conjunction with the increase, Maha Katabi, Ph.D., CFA, partner, private equity at Sectoral Asset Management, joined its board of directors.
The company, which has raised $111m in total, intends to use the funds to pursue comprehensive clinical development of its lead product candidate, eFT508, an orally bioavailable MNK1 and MNK2 inhibitor, across multiple tumor types, as well as to advance its discovery pipeline addressing additional targets.
Led by Steve Worland, Ph.D., president and CEO, eFFECTOR Therapeutics is advancing selective translation regulators as a new class of small molecule therapeutics for cancer. The company’s investigational compounds are designed to restore translational control to halt underlying disease mechanisms while preserving healthy physiological processes. Its lead drug candidate, eFT508, is a selective MNK1 and MNK2 inhibitor. MNK1 and 2 are kinases that act as signal integrators at the convergence of multiple oncogenic and immune signaling pathways to regulate production of disease-driving proteins.
The company, which is currently evaluating eFT508 in an open-label Phase 1/2 trial in patients with advanced solid tumors, expects to file a second IND in lymphoma in the first half of 2016.
It also plans to declare its second development candidate later this year.
FinSMEs
19/02/2016