– First participant dosed in Phase 1/2 PROSPER trial of FMC-376 in KRAS^G12C Cancers

– FMC-376 is a first-in-class direct dual inhibitor of ON+OFF KRAS^G12C

– FMC-376 has the potential to transform patient outcomes with its ability to overcomes both innate and acquired resistance mechanisms and brain metastases 

BOSTON and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (February 22, 2024) – Frontier Medicines Corporation, a precision medicine company seeking to unlock the proteome to advance transformational therapies against otherwise undruggable disease-causing targets, today announced the close of an oversubscribed $80 million Series C financing. The financing was co-led by Deerfield Management Company and Droia Ventures, with significant participation from Galapagos NV (Euronext & NASDAQ: GLPG) as a strategic investor, and contributions from new and existing investors including DCVC Bio, MPM Capital, and RA Capital Management. This Series C financing brings the total capital raised since Frontier’s founding to $235.5 million. 

“At Galapagos, we are focused on breakthrough science and innovation to address high unmet medical needs,” said Dr. Paul Stoffels^[1], CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Galapagos. “Frontier Medicines is a leading chemoproteomics company with a unique technology platform and a pipeline of potential best-in-class assets that fit with Galapagos’ precision oncology R&D approach. The participation in Frontier Medicines’ Series C round aligns with our innovation acceleration strategy to bring transformational medicines to patients around the world.” 

Financing proceeds will support the advancement of multiple wholly-owned pipeline programs into clinical studies, including FMC-376. Frontier today announced the first participant dosed in the Phase 1/2 PROSPER clinical trial (NCT 06244771) evaluating FMC-376 in patients with KRAS^G12C cancers. 

“Today we mark the first participant dosed with a therapeutic candidate born from the Frontier™ Platform, alongside a financing that affirms continued strong investor support. Frontier Medicines has amassed a robust data set that shows FMC-376 is expected to overcome the resistance seen with prior generation single-acting inhibitors, and we are excited to demonstrate this potential in the clinical setting,” said Chris Varma, Ph.D., chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Frontier Medicines. “This represents a major milestone for the Frontier team in our mission to deliver transformational medicines for patients in need. We look forward to further progress on our pipeline of wholly-owned precision medicine programs later this year.”

FMC-376 was discovered by applying the Frontier™ Platform to directly engage both ON+OFF KRAS^G12C with exquisite selectivity. Preclinical data featured at the AACR Annual Meeting 2023 demonstrate FMC-376 is >1,000-fold more effective at blocking key effector protein interactions versus prior generation single-acting inhibitors, leading to rapid and durable suppression of KRAS^G12C signaling. FMC-376 is an orally bioavailable small molecule that has shown efficacy in vivo across a broad array of KRAS^G12C mutant non-small cell lung (NSCLC), pancreatic and colorectal cancer models, as well as models of NSCLC brain metastases, which is anticipated to drive enhanced efficacy and prolonged durability. The differentiated dual direct mechanism of action of FMC-376 offers the potential to overcome the lack of response and resistance seen with current KRAS^G12C single-acting treatments.

The Phase 1/2 PROSPER clinical trial is an open-label, multi-center dose escalation and expansion study designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of FMC-376 in participants with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic solid tumors which harbor the KRAS^G12C mutation. For more information on the PROSPER trial, please visit clinicaltrials.gov.

About Frontier Medicines

Frontier Medicines is a clinical stage precision medicine company pioneering groundbreaking medicines to transform treatment for genetically-defined patient populations, starting with oncology and immunology. Our proprietary chemoproteomics powered drug discovery engine, the Frontier™ Platform, leverages covalent chemistry and machine learning to unlock hard-to-treat disease causing proteins for drug development. Today, we are advancing a diversified pipeline of wholly-owned precision medicines against the most important drivers of cancer and high-value immunology programs. Our lead candidate, FMC-376, is a dual inhibitor of on+off KRAS^G12C. FMC-376 is a potential best-in-class therapy designed to completely block both forms of the KRAS mutation to overcome the lack of response and resistance seen with single-acting KRAS^G12C inhibitors. For more information, please visit www.frontiermeds.com. Follow Frontier on LinkedIn.