Forma Therapeutics Reveals $25 Million in Venture Funding, Including Singapore’s Bio*One Capital
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Forma Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based start-up with research operations in Singapore, Beijing and Connecticut announced Jan. 6 it raised $25 million in venture capital funding from multiple sources, including Bio*One Capital - Singapore government's biotech investment arm - and the Novartis Option Fund
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Forma Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based start-up with research operations in Singapore, Beijing and Connecticut announced Jan. 6 it raised $25 million in venture capital funding from multiple sources, including Bio*One Capital - Singapore government's biotech investment arm - and the Novartis Option Fund. "We are working very closely with the Economic Development Board of Singapore in terms of grants and other support for our Singapore subsidiary. We made a very conscientious decision to embrace a global infrastructure from the beginning," Forma CEO and co-founder Steven Tregay said in an interview about the company, which existed on paper in November 2007 and launched its venture round in March 2008. Tregay said Forma's genesis is in research done by co-founders from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT regarding U.S. NIH's Cancer Genome Atlas Project, which seeks to identify different cancer types within subpatient populations through genetic analysis. "What we look to do is we've built an integrated set of capabilities that allow us to go after the challenging targets that are coming out of this," he said. "There certainly will be targets such as kinases that will be incredibly competitive, but many of these, like protein-protein interactions or transcription factors are very challenging using traditional drug discovery approaches, and so we have built our core capabilities around being able to execute against those… and then select those targets we feel have the best opportunity to move forward where there is a real chance to be both best-in-class and first-in-class in drug discovery opportunities." In discussing Forma's reasons for establishing a subsidiary in Singapore, Tregay noted the "tremendous amount of research" being funded by Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research. The Singapore subsidiary will focus on chemistry and medicinal chemistry while Forma's strategic partnership in Beijing with Quinghua University will focus solely on crystallography. Tregay co-founded the company while serving as managing director of Novartis Option Fund. "The strength of Forma's scientific platform and the caliber of scientists and industry executives that have come together to build this company make it a highly promising investment opportunity in oncology drug discovery," said Novartis Venture Funds Head Reinhard Ambros. - Daniel Poppy ([email protected]) |