Viva BioInnovator provides cash and CRO services (EFS)

SAN DIEGO, CA, USA I December 28, 2020 I f5 Therapeutics Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company developing small-molecule targeted protein degraders via their NExMods™ platform, today announced that they successfully closed a seed round which will be used to validate and advance multiple preclinical therapeutic candidates. The NExMods™ platform will deliver a broad and diverse pipeline of “First-in-Class” medicines for diseases with high unmet needs.

Targeted protein degradation mediated by small-molecule degraders represents a new and exciting therapeutic modality to eliminate disease-causing proteins previously deemed “undruggable”. This drug discovery approach recruits E3 ubiquitin ligases to the disease driving protein of interest to mediate its ubiquitination and subsequent proteolysis by the proteasome. Molecular glues can degrade proteins lacking a binding site by facilitating interactions between target protein and ligase.

f5 Therapeutics was founded in April of 2020 by a highly accomplished executive team with 15 development candidates and 1 approved agent to their credit. In the field of protein degradation, the Founders have over 20 combined years of experience. The clinical candidates are derived from a combination of both phenotypic and targeted approaches. In the field of protein degradation, the Founders have >20 combined years of research. The goal of f5 is to combine protein degradation in physiologically relevant settings.

“This seed funding underscores the potential of the f5 platform to generate unique, next generation protein degraders for many diseases where treatment options don’t exist or where treatment outcomes are suboptimal.” said Gary Choy, Co-Founder and CEO of f5 Therapeutics, “We look forward to expanding our library of proprietary compounds to find multi-modal molecules that can attack disease utilizing multiple mechanisms of action.”

John Boylan, PhD, Co-Founder and EVP of Research and Development added, “Our current library has already yielded positive cellular results and this key funding increases our ability to accelerate the delivery of these transformative therapies to patients who need them.”

About f5 Therapeutics Inc. f5 is a privately held pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of First-in-Class small molecules for the treatment of diseases with high unmet medical need. We are evolving targeted protein degradation to transform the landscape of drug discovery by utilizing the cell’s normal protein regulation systems to remove disease causing proteins that cannot be targeted by traditional approaches. The NExMods™ Platform (Neosubstrate Expression Modulators) represents a novel approach to “molecular glues” capable of delivering impactful medicines to patients across diverse therapeutic areas including oncology, immuno-oncology, fibrosis, inflammation, and neurodegeneration. To learn more: http://www.f5therapeutics.com

About Viva BioInnovators

Viva BioInnovator is Viva Biotech‘s investment and incubation division. VBI is dedicated to investing globally in biotech innovation with novel solutions to unmet medical needs cross multiple therapeutic areas. Leveraging Viva Biotech’s rich experience and technical advantages in the field of novel drug R&D, VBI provides both cash and in-kind services (EFS) for their investment. Additionally, based on the need, VBI also offers value-added services in operation and logistic support, BD, and Financing assistance, etc. to accelerate the growth of its portfolio companies. To learn more: http://www.vivabioinnovator.com/

SOURCE: f5 Therapeutics