An oncology-focused pharmaceutical startup launched Tuesday is the latest to emerge directly from the venture capital world.
Erasca, based in San Diego, announced its launch with a $42 million Series A funding round, co-led by City Hill Ventures and Cormorant Asset Management, along with participation from other institutional and individual investors. The company’s name represents what it calls its “bold mission of erasing cancer.” The company even says its goal is to develop therapies that don’t just treat, but cure cancers.
To be sure, with oncologists usually careful to use the c-word for patients only in specific instances – disease-free for a certain number of years and expected to remain alive for as long as if there were no cancer – that’s a big ask. But in a phone interview, executive chairman and co-founder Jonathan Lim clarified that the company’s goal entailed exploring multiple therapeutic modalities, including combination approaches. “I think it encapsulates our scientific approach of being focused not just on shrinking tumors, but erasing residual disease,” he said. The company’s programs are currently in early discovery, he added.
For now, the company is not disclosing its therapeutic targets but Lim said it would mainly focus on small-molecule drugs in the treatment of solid tumors. The funding it has raised is expected to be sufficient to take the company into the clinic in the next few years, he said. The company is also in partnering talks. “We’re seeking to expand our pipeline through partnerships with academic partners and biopharma companies working on exceptional approaches to precision oncology,” he said.
Precision medicine is a significant part of Lim’s background. He was co-founder and CEO of Ignyta, which Swiss drugmaker Roche acquired earlier this year for $1.7 billion. That company’s lead product candidate, entrectinib, is designed as an inhibitor of NTRK and ALK fusions, so-called oncogenic drivers that play a key role in tumor growth and whose targeting can produce strong responses in patients. Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration approved another NTRK inhibitor, Loxo Oncology and Bayer’s Vitrakvi (larotrectinib), for any metastatic or unresectable solid tumor that carries an NTRK fusion.
Last week, Versant Ventures also launched an in-house company focused on oncology, Black Diamond Therapeutics, with a Series A round of $20 million, provided exclusively by the venture capital firm.
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