Disco Pharmaceuticals is taking to the biotech dance floor with seed funding from major players and pipeline programs in small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer.
Pictured: Illustration of disco ball with bright rays emanating from it/iStock
A European biotech is dancing into the new year with backing from some major players. Disco Pharmaceuticals emerged from stealth on Tuesday with €20 million ($21.8 million) in backing from sources such as AbbVie Ventures, M Ventures, Panakes Partners and Sofinnova Partners, who led the round.
Disco, which operates out of Cologne, Germany and Schlieren, Switzerland, is working on its own antibody-based treatments for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer. According to the company, it also has other programs in its pipeline that it did not disclose at this time.
The company contends it “has completed the first-ever map of the surfaceome” of SCLC and is developing proprietary antibody-based treatments for the cancer type, which has historically been difficult to treat.
“The development of new biologics, such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and bi-specific antibodies, is on the rise; however, there are currently less than 30 molecular targets which form the basis of all antibody-based therapies. Therefore, there is a significant need to identify novel cancer-specific targets and target pairs,” states Tuesday’s announcement.
Disco’s technology can “unlock” the surface of cancer cells by finding “surface-bound” proteins and unveiling protein communities, according to its website. Disco claims this approach will find targets that other discovery methods, such as standard proteomics or genome sequencing, cannot.
“We believe that our surfaceome discovery technology is truly disruptive and will transform oncology treatment options and ultimately improve outcomes for patients. The surfaceome mapping in small cell lung cancer—that we completed within months—has validated our technology platform and approach, demonstrating its potential, and we look forward to applying it to different indications,” Disco CEO Roman Thomas said in a statement.
Disco was spun out of ETH Zurich, a public research university, as well as the University of Cologne and Stanford University. The company was founded in May 2022 by Thomas, Johannes Heuckmann, Bernd Wollscheid and Julien Sage. Stefan Ries, a venture partner at Versant Ventures, is now Disco’s CSO. Former Bayer Pharmaceuticals CEO Dieter Weinand will join Disco as its chairman of the board.
“Expanding the possible target space in oncology has been a bottleneck in the industry for decades. I am thrilled to be working with the truly exceptional people at Disco as I firmly believe that they will be able to overcome this hurdle by using their disruptive surfaceome discovery engine,” Weinand said in a statement.
While 2023 was a difficult year for startups to secure funding, so far in early 2024, IPOs, investments and M&A activity have seen strong activity. Earlier this month, Sofinnova participated in a $100 million Series A round for ADC biotech OnCusp Therapeutics.
Tyler Patchen is a staff writer at BioSpace. You can reach him at tyler.patchen@biospace.com. Follow him on LinkedIn.
