Precision medicine is only as good as its goals. While targeted therapies now address many types of cancer, tumors still frequently mutate, helping them evade drugs. One strategy to address tumor escape is to combine different anticancer drugs.
Biotech startup IDRx aims to use scientific knowledge of tumor biology to develop new drug combinations covering cancer escape pathways. It’s now out of secrecy, backed by $122 million.This Series A financing The announcement on Tuesday was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Casdin Capital.
Plymouth, Massachusetts-based IDRx said it was inspired by various drug combinations that have proven successful in treating conditions such as cystic fibrosis and certain viral infections. Drug combinations are already routinely used to treat cancer. But the toxic effects of multiple drugs mean these combinations are only used for advanced cancers with limited treatment options.
IDRx is designed to bring combination therapy to the early stages of cancer treatment. The first drug in the combination will be designed to hit the main mutation that allows cancer to escape. The goal is for the drug to have a wide therapeutic window, a range of doses in which the therapy can be used without dose-limiting toxicity. The company said the wide therapeutic window would allow the cancer drug to be used as an early treatment.
The second part of these drug combinations will consist of molecules that block resistance mutations that were not addressed by the first drug. According to IDRx, this approach would shut down the cancer’s escape pathway and produce a durable response to treatment. In the future, IDRx said its drug cocktail could include more than two drugs to address multiple genetic pathways in cancer.
IDRx was founded last year by Alexis Borisy, a serial entrepreneur whose businesses include EQRx, a startup tackling high drug prices. Although IDRx plans to design its own drugs, the startup’s most advanced projects come from outside its lab. IDRX-42 is licensed from Merck and IDRX-73 is licensed from Blueprint Medicines. Both are small molecules designed to block tyrosine kinases, each targeting distinct genetic drivers and resistance mutations in gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a type of intestinal cancer.
In a prepared statement, IDRx co-founder and CEO Ben Auspitz said GIST provides IDRx an opportunity to start with cancers with well-known tumor biology but also a high unmet medical need. The startup’s founders include Nicholas Lydon, a scientist who played a key role in the development of Gleevec, a Novartis cancer drug with approved uses including GIST.
IDRX-42 has started Phase 1 studies and IDRX-73 is moving towards human trials. Although the drugs are being tested individually, IDRx intends to use them together eventually.in its websitethe company said that IDRX-42 could serve as a base therapy for GIST patients, and that adding IDRX-73 “could result in transformative benefits.”
blueprint drug disclose It received a license for its small molecule on Tuesday morning during its second-quarter 2022 financial results presentation. The deal gives the company a 15% stake in IDRx as part of the startup’s Series A financing. Blueprint could also receive up to $217.5 million in milestone payments, as well as royalties on sales if the drug hits the market.
Other disclosed investors in IDRx are Nextech Invest and Forge Life Science Partners.
Photos by Flickr users Ed Osman through Creative Commons license
