LifeMine Therapeutics Announces $175 Million Series C Financing

LifeMine Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company reinventing drug discovery by mining genetically-encoded small molecules (GEMs) from the biosphere, today announced the completion of a $175 million Series C financing. The financing was led by new investor Fidelity Management & Research Company, with participation by additional new investors Invus and 3W Partners Capital; GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) also joined the round as a strategic partner. Existing investors, including GV, Arch Venture Partners, Blue Pool Capital and MRL Ventures Fund, also participated.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance LifeMine’s proprietary, evolutionarily-derived genomic drug discovery platform, Avatar-Rx. The platform seamlessly integrates high-throughput microbiology, data science and artificial intelligence, genome engineering and automation technologies to search the fungal biosphere for novel GEMs having a predetermined target and biological function, with synthetic biology then being used to retrieve these GEMs from their evolutionary source within the space of a few months time. Downstream of GEM discovery, Avatar-Rx further integrates chemoinformatic-assisted drug optimization and state-of-the-art chemical synthesis with biotransformation to advance new product candidates rapidly through preclinical discovery and into clinical development.

“This financing will allow us to further scale our Avatar-Rx platform and advance our lead programs targeting some of the most elusive and high value genetically validated drivers of cancer,” said Gregory Verdine, Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief executive officer of LifeMine. “This financing, together with our recently announced multitarget R&D collaboration with GSK, and factoring in recent scientific and corporate progress, leaves us well-positioned to rapidly advance multiple high-impact precision medicines to solve some of the most intractable challenges facing modern medicine.”