South San Francisco, CA – Frontier Medicines announced today that Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), selected the company for its annual list of 10 Chemistry Start-ups to Watch. C&EN writers and editors scoured the start-up landscape for standouts and reader nominations. These fledging firms are being recognized for their world-changing chemistry innovations and bringing them to market.

“This year’s start-ups represent the breadth of the global chemical enterprise,” says Bibiana Campos Seijo, Ph.D., editor-in-chief and vice president of C&EN Media Group. “They are already hard at work boosting the world’s supply of sustainable protein, finding hidden drug targets for future cancer drugs, designing new sustainable materials, removing microcontaminants like PFAS from drinking water, capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and reducing the energy required for catalysts and chemical separations.” This week’s C&EN cover story profiles these companies on the rise.

Frontier Medicines announced in June the closing of a Series A Preferred Stock financing round of $67 million led by Deerfield Management, Droia Oncology Ventures and MPM Capital, with participation from DCVC Bio (an affiliated fund of DCVC), RA Capital Management and other investors. The company is using chemoproteomics – an innovative approach to chemically interrogate proteins in living systems – to discover and pharmacologically target novel binding pockets (or “hotspots”) on proteins. Frontier Medicines’ proprietary platform enables previously “undruggable” proteins, including those that drive diseases such as cancer, to finally become accessible to small-molecule drug discovery and development.

“All of us at Frontier Medicines are thrilled to be recognized by Chemical & Engineering News on their list of 10 chemistry start-ups to watch,” said Chris Varma, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Frontier Medicines. “While we are taking on a considerable challenge, we believe our chemoproteomics approach will have a tremendous impact on transforming patients’ lives for the better. Our entire team would like to thank Chemical & Engineering News for including Frontier Medicines in this amazing group of start-ups and entrepreneurs.”

In September, FierceBiotech named Frontier Medicines as one of 2019’s Fierce 15 biotechnology companies, which recognizes the most promising private biotechnology companies in the industry.