Working with Patients and a Fresh $80M, Fulcrum Eyes a 2019 IPO
Summary
The new funding, led by Foresite Capital, comes from a wide array of crossover investors, such as Fidelity Management and Research, that back both private and public companies.The company hopes to go public early next year, after filing papers with the FDA to begin human testing of its first drug, for a rare muscle wasting disease called facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), Gould says.Fulcrum is trying to use drugs to control molecular switches that turn genes on or off, hoping to treat a variety of diseases with no effective treatments—starting with FSHD, which is marked by muscle degeneration that starts in the face, back, and upper arms.Though the disease typically progresses slowly and isn’t fatal, FSHD, which affects an estimated 870,000 people worldwide according to the nonprofit FSH Society , can leave patients in wheelchairs or on respirators.That approach is atypical; more often, drug developers connect with patient groups later on, Michael Tranfaglia, medical director, chief scientific officer, and co-founder of the FRAXA Research Foundation, told Xconomy in 2017 .
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