On May 5, 2021 BridGene Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company using cutting-edge chemoproteomic technology to discover and develop small molecules for high value, yet traditionally undruggable targets, reported that it has raised $12 million in a Series A private financing round led by Wedo Venture Partners with additional participation by Kaitai Capital and Takeda Ventures, alongside existing investor Pangu Venture (Press release, Bridgene Biosciences, MAY 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234579237]).
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BridGene plans to use proceeds from the Series A financing to expand the company’s proprietary covalent library to discover small-molecule ligands for a broader range of targets, advance existing oncology programs and enhance operations.
The Company’s proprietary chemoproteomic platform, IMTAC (Isobaric Mass Tagged Affinity Characterization), addresses many of the challenges associated with small-molecule drug discovery. Many disease drivers have long been deemed undruggable because their functional pockets are either too shallow or formed transiently in live cells, making such conditions difficult for conventional small molecules to address. While phenotypic screening can be performed in live cells, it is extremely difficult to identify small-molecule hits’ cellular targets that are responsible for the phenotypic modulation. BridGene has the unique ability to meet these challenges as IMTAC screening not only enables the efficient discovery of novel hits for myriad proteins, including those deemed undruggable in live cells, but also allows target deconvolution for phenotypic screening hits.
"We are pleased to make this investment, as we believe BridGene plays an important role in discovering small molecules for traditionally undruggable targets, as well as rapidly identifying (deconvoluting) targets in phenotypic screening, and revolutionarily developing precision medicine for a wide range of unmet medical need," said Leilei Wang, managing partner of Wedo Venture Partners. "Medical advancement requires greater efficiency across the spectrum of development – from discovery through commercialization, and BridGene’s IMTAC platform has the potential to positively impact the earliest, and often most challenging, steps in this process."
"This financing, combined with our recently announced collaboration with Takeda, affirms the strong support among investors and pharmaceutical developers for our proprietary drug discovery and development platform and experienced management team," stated Ping Cao, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of BridGene Biosciences. "Over the last few years, we have pursued pioneering work in covalent small molecules and chemoproteomic screening to identify small molecules for traditional undruggable targets and quickly move from hits to leads. Today, thanks to the help of our investors, we are in a strong financial position to continue building a unique chemoproteomic platform and advance the development of our internal pipeline with the goal of providing new therapies for unmet medical needs."