Effector Therapeutics Raises $45M to Prove New Concept in Cancer
Summary
Effector moved to San Diego at the end of last year, and yesterday the company said it had raised $45 million in Series A financing, which should be enough to fund the startup’s lead candidate through proof-of-concept studies.The company also has named Carol Gallagher, the former CEO of Seattle’s Calistoga Pharmaceuticals (and a San Diego Xconomist), as chairwoman of Effector’s board of directors.At a time when many cancer researchers were focused on developing drugs to inhibit the function of key oncogenes like BRAF or MEK, Worland says Shokat and Ruggero became interested in related malfunctions that help to drive tumor growth.San Francisco, says in a statement from the company, “Translation has been known to be a fundamental step in gene expression for decades, but was only recently recognized as a critical process regulating the cellular levels of certain key proteins.By addressing an effector mechanism required by many oncogenes, including previously undruggable targets, selective translation regulators have the potential to treat multiple tumor types and may confer benefits beyond what has been observed clinically with inhibitors of single oncogenic targets.” The company acquired an exclusive license from the University of California to technologies related to translational control, and Worland assembled a team that includes former Lilly research fellow Siegfried Reich as senior vice president of drug discovery, and former Anadys executive Kevin Eastwood to lead business development.