Pheast Therapeutics launched today with $76 million in Series A financing. Pheast is focused on developing cancer checkpoint therapies to fight malignant cells, focusing on ovarian and breast cancers.
Pheast Therapeutics launched Tuesday with $76 million in Series A financing led by Catalio Capital Management and ARCH Venture Partners. Pheast is in the market to develop novel cancer checkpoint therapies to fight malignant cells.
In particular, Pheast is hoping to make changes to treatment options for patients with ovarian and breast cancers who have seen lackluster responses to existing immunotherapies. To target malignant cells, the company plans to harness macrophages, innate immune system cells which are known to engulf and digest dead cells and microorganisms, while also stimulating other immune cells to prompt an immune response.
Pheast plans to hone in on CD24, a protein cancers use to avoid being eaten by macrophages. By targeting CD24, the company can provide treatments that make cancer cells more visible to macrophages to remove them.
The company is in good hands to provide CD24-based therapies. Two experts on its team, Dr. Ravi Majeti, M.D., Ph.D. and Dr. Irving Weissman, M.D., were instrumental researchers in the discovery of surface protein CD47, which also evades cancer cells by producing a “don’t eat me” signal to macrophages.
Both researchers were involved in the critical advancement of CD47-targeting clinical programs that were developed to treat hematological malignancies. Previously, the two co-founded Forty Seven Inc., an immuno-oncology company that focused its efforts on targeting the CD47 pathway. Forty Seven was later acquired by Gilead.
Pheast’s technique is unique in that it targets the CD24 axis, which has shown promise as a treatment in animal models of different types of cancer, including breast and ovarian. The company plans to develop therapeutic strategies to combine macrophage checkpoint inhibitors with existing anti-cancer therapies to create a potent combination. Pheast will also leverage its proprietary discovery platform to enable the development of other tumor-specific cancer immunotherapies.
Pheast is founded on the principle that the scientists who are involved in the discovery of therapeutic avenues should also be intimately involved in its clinical developments. To that end, Weissman and Majeti are joined by Dr. Amira Barkal, M.D., Ph.D., interim CEO of Pheast, who received her Ph.D. under the advisement of Weissman. Dr. Roy Maute, Ph.D. also joins the team as CSO with a heavy background in macrophagic-based immunotherapies, having previously led biomarker and translational research at Forty Seven Inc. and later working on CD47 therapies at Gilead.
Pheast plans to use its newfound funds to expand its management, scientific and administrative teams. The company will also divert funds towards research and development to advance its pipeline of cancer therapeutics. Currently, the company is hiring for a research associate in protein sciences, a scientist in protein sciences and a scientist in biology.
“Pheast is not just a CD24 company, though. We intend to maximize the potential of macrophages in more tumor types, and for more patients. We know now that ‘don’t eat me’ signals are redundant — many tumors express two or even more different signals. Each tumor type — and perhaps each individual tumor — likely has a sort of ‘don’t eat me’ signal signature,” Barkal wrote in a Medium post. “By advancing our pipeline of macrophage checkpoint inhibitors, we could therapeutically block the right combination of ‘don’t eat me’ signals to eliminate each tumor type. This is Pheast’s vision: to bring about a Macrophage Revolution through precision cancer immunotherapy.”
