On December 15, 2021 Mythic Therapeutics reported its launch to develop smarter and safer antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) with an oversubscribed Series B financing round of $103 million (Press release, Mythic Therapeutics, DEC 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234597235]). Viking Global Investors led the round, along with new investors including Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Foresite Capital, Perceptive Advisors, and Highside Capital. Existing Mythic investors participating in the round include Venrock, First Round Capital, OMX Ventures, Lifeforce Capital, and Refactor Capital. The proceeds from Mythic’s Series B will finance the lead program through first-in-human clinical studies in lung cancer and fund pipeline development.

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"We are thrilled to partner with this distinguished group of investors," said Alex Nichols, PhD, co-founder, President, and CEO of Mythic Therapeutics. "This financing validates the FateControl approach and supports our efforts to achieve expanded use of Mythic’s ADCs within and across indications, translating to improved outcomes for patients with unmet medical needs."

Although the development history of ADCs spans more than four decades, the clinical benefit of ADCs has so far remained limited to a subset of diseases and targets with optimal biological characteristics, such as high levels of target expression. Mythic has developed a breakthrough approach to expand the role of ADCs in precision medicine by dramatically improving ADC therapeutic index against a broad set of molecular targets and patient profiles.

"To date, approaches to improve the performance of ADCs have focused primarily on innovation in one of three dimensions: linker and payload chemistries, conjugation technology, and new target biology," said Brian Fiske, PhD, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Mythic Therapeutics. "Mythic seeks to improve the clinical performance of ADCs by introducing a new dimension of ADC technology focused on manipulating the fate of ADCs within the cell."

ADCs are designed to specifically deliver a therapeutic payload to a target tissue or disease site. However, studies have demonstrated that the vast majority of payload is ultimately released non-specifically throughout the body, causing systemic toxicity and reducing efficacy. Mythic’s FateControl technology increases the amount of ADC that is internalized by the target tissue while reducing payload release in non-targeted tissues, thereby improving therapeutic index independent of the linker and payload. Mythic’s lead program in lung cancer has the potential to drive a multi-fold expansion of the number of lung cancer patients eligible for treatment using ADCs; the company plans on developing a pipeline of products incorporating its platform technology.

"Venrock was attracted by Mythic’s innovative strategy to overcome one of the most historically challenging obstacles to realizing the full potential of ADCs for patients," said Bryan Roberts of Venrock, a member of Mythic’s Board of Directors. "The progress this team has made in a short time reinforces our deep conviction in Mythic’s ability to develop a pipeline of safer and more effective ADCs, beginning with their lead program. We are delighted to be part of the Mythic story."

Leadership

Alex Nichols, PhD, Co-Founder, President, CEO, and Director
Brian Fiske, PhD, Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer, and Director
Sandra Poole, MASc, PEng, Chief Operating Officer
In addition to Alex and Brian, the Mythic Therapeutics Board of Directors is comprised of:

Bryan Roberts, PhD, Partner, Venrock
Josh Kopelman, Partner, First Round Capital
Peter Hecht, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO, Cyclerion; Co-Founder and former CEO, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
Scientific Advisory Board

Douglas E. Williams, PhD, President and CEO, Codiak Biosciences
John Lambert, PhD, former EVP and CSO, ImmunoGen
Michael Vasconcelles, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Flatiron Health
Richard Gregory, PhD, former CSO, ImmunoGen and former head of R&D, Sanofi
Scott J. Dylla, PhD, Co-Founder and Former CSO, Stemcentrx