FogPharma has secured $145m in a Series E financing round to support the clinical development of its cancer therapy FOG-001 and expedite the advancement of its Helicon Peptide portfolio.

Nextech Invest led the financing round with new investors, including Rock Springs Capital, RA Capital Management, General Catalyst, Marshall Wace and Samsara Biocapital.

The financing round also saw support from current investors such as ARCH Venture Partners, GV, the Fidelity Management & Research Company and Cormorant Asset Management.

FOG-001 is an intracellular TCF-blocking β-catenin inhibitor. It is being analysed in a Phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of solid tumours.

This asset is designed to target a key oncogenic step in the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway, which is frequently activated in a range of cancers

FOG-001 can disrupt a cancer driver that was previously inaccessible to antibody and traditional small molecule medicines.

The investment will also accelerate the development of FogPharma’s diverse discovery programmes, enhance the company’s data science expertise and bolster its Helicon therapeutics platform.

The platform merges stabilised helical peptides with advanced computational physics and artificial intelligence (AI) to discover and develop treatments for previously undruggable intracellular targets.

FogPharma chairman, president and CEO Mathai Mammen stated: “Millions of colorectal cancer patients have been told by their oncologists that no more can be done for them.

“We believe FOG-001 may represent the long-awaited major technological breakthrough needed to address one of the most common yet unaddressed oncogenic signalling pathways.

“This financing will allow us to execute our expanded clinical development and commercialisation strategy to deliver FOG-001 to patients, while simultaneously strengthening our discovery efforts against other compelling intracellular targets that drive a range of diseases.”