Top Tips For Successful Private Fund Raise
Anker Lundemose, CEO of MISSION Therapeutics talks to Biotech and Money about different ways to successfully raise private fund.
Anker shares top insight on MISSION Therapeutics’ successful £60M private fund raise and explains why the public market route wasn’t the obvious choice for them.
Anker Lundemose has extensive experience from business and corporate development as well as R&D in key therapeutic areas including oncology, diabetes and anti-infectives. He has a broad international network and experience, and has led successful mergers and acquisitions within biotech, venture investments and licensing.
B&M: Anker, if we could start understanding some background to Mission Therapeutics and if you can give us your company elevator pitch?
AL: MISSION Therapeutics is drug discovery and development company focused on selectively targeting deubiquitilating enzymes, or DUBs, to treat diseases of high unmet need. We have built a World-leading platform of first in class molecule inhibitors of these DUBs for the treatment of cancer and certain CNS diseases.
As a spin out of Cambridge University, our leadership team has a wealth of international, commercial and scientific experience in this area. We have a broad chemistry platform and we’re now transforming from a platform to a product company with focus on route to clinic.
We built a phenomenal team, and have phenomenal investors on board. We recently raised a Series C financing of 60 million pounds and to date, have received £87 million in venture capital from a blue chip syndicate comprising institutional and corporate investors. The funds will be used to execute the strategy to create value by advancing our pipeline programmes through early clinical development.
“We recently raised a Series C financing of 60 million pounds and to date, have received £87 million in venture capital from a blue chip syndicate comprising institutional and corporate investors.”
B&M: What is it that makes DUBs an exciting drugs class? You’ve already mentioned application in terms of cancer and other diseases, but what’s the potential scope of DUB in relation to multiple disease focuses.
AL: I think the interesting thing about DUBs is that it’s an unexploited class of enzyme in the cell, there’s about a hundred of them in a cell. It’s a little bit like you have the kinase and phosphatases; you have ubiquitin living enzymes and deubiquitin living enzymes. And they are sort of regulating more or less similar processes. And the exciting thing is nobody has really been able to address these pharmacologically. That’s where we’ve been successful. And that’s really the key here. It could be the new kinase phosphatase area of drug discovery.
B&M: Is there a particular approach you’re taking you feel is giving you a unique position in the market?
AL: I believe we are probably the only company on the planet solely focussed on DUBs. And these enzymes have been our sole focus for the last 4 years, since our formation in late 2011.
We’ve been able to generate selective chemistry against a number of different DUBS. I think that’s been the challenge for the industry to come up with good chemistry. That’s something we have solved, probably because our experience and the fact that we’ve invested a lot of time, money and resources to get there.
B&M: You mentioned the notion of the business moving from a platform technology company to a pipeline developing company with candidates in the clinic. Am I understanding that correctly?
AL: Yes. Through our DUB platform we are developing a rich pipeline of DUB inhibitor programmes that are progressing towards clinical development. We have two core programmes, USP30 and USP7, where we are generating inhibitors for neurodegenerative disorders and oncology respectively and are planning to nominate R&D track candidates later this year, with the aim of taking them to clinical trials late ’17 early ’18.
“We have two core programmes, USP30 and USP7, where we are generating inhibitors for neurodegenerative disorders and oncology respectively and are planning to nominate R&D track candidates later this year, with the aim of taking them to clinical trials late ’17 early ’18”
B&M: And your more immediate milestone coming up for that particular aspect if you like?
AL: That’s the preclinical candidate nomination in the second half of this year, on these two programmes.
B&M: And more broadly than that I understand you have more than just the two programmes in your portfolio?
AL: Yes behind that there are a number of platform projects where we’re doing target validation and assay development, and screening and lead optimisation. Hopefully they will lead to IND track candidates in 17 and 18 going forward.
B&M: You mentioned the focus being on neurodegenerative and oncology. Is there a potential for other therapeutic focus in relation to this programme or do you see those two sectors as yielding the most promise from your programme pipeline?
AL: There’s no question that oncology is a major area. But other areas where DUBs are known to be involved are muscle wasting diseases, inflammation and other types of CNS diseases.
B&M: If we now move on to the question of financing that you mentioned earlier. Again congratulations on the 60 million pounds private nancing secured in February this year. Are you able to briefly comment on why MISSION and yourselves chose the private financing route as opposed to tapping markets, which has been the case with the likes of Shield, recently this year. Are you able to share your thoughts on why you chose that route?
AL: First of all we were able to attract one of the highest profile investor syndicates in Europe, with Woodford and Imperial as lead investors in this Series C round, plus existing shareholders Sofinnova Partners, SR One, Roche Venture Fund and Pfizer Venture Investments. With the support of our investors in realising the full potential of the platform, this was much more attractive option to going public.
I think some public investors will probably view MISSION as a little too early, in terms of where we are in pre-clinical development. So it was pretty straight forward for us to decide this was going to be a private round.
B&M: Having attracted the likes of Imperial and Woodford to invest in MISSION, it obviously comes on the back of additional follow on funding from existing shareholders of which there are also some prominent companies and funds. What is it you felt that was attractive to the likes of Imperial and Woodford in what MISSION is developing?
AL: Both Imperial Innovation and Woodford, they’re looking to back outstanding British science, and MISSION science originates from the University of Cambridge. The scientific founder Professor Steve Jackson, is the youngest elected professor in Cambridge since Newton. His research has been instrumental in shaping our understanding of cellular responses to DNA damage and of how defects in these responses contribute to disease. Steve co-founded KuDOS Pharma which was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2006. Olaparib, which was originated by KuDOS, was approved for advanced BRCA+ ovarian cancer in USA and Europe in 2014. So I think that’s one thing.
The other thing is the team. MISSION Therapeutics’ leadership team has a wealth of international, commercial and scientific experience, and is probably one of the most experienced teams in this space in Europe considering how early the company is.
Lastly, I believe our platform has yielded some extremely interesting projects in oncology and in neurodegenerative disorders, which is a highly unique novel mechanism and both are addressing a huge unmet need.
So all those ingredients is what I think attracted the support of such high pro le investors.
But one of the secrets here is also the two programmes. USP30 is associated with the mitochondria, and is a negatively regulator of mitophagy. Mitophagy is the process removing impaired and defective mitochondria, which is now known to be one of the key issues in many neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, Huntingdon’s.
By inhibiting USP30 mitophagy is accelerated and removed of impaired mitochondria is increased. We believe we’re the only one in this space. The activity has potential for disease modifying activity so that’s really exciting.
The other program USP7 for oncology is in the immune-oncology area and is a small molecule immune-oncology programme. As such, we have two unique, clearly differentiated programmes coming out of this novel platform.
“MISSION Therapeutics’ leadership team has a wealth of international, commercial and scientific experience, and is probably one of the most experienced teams in this space in Europe considering how early the company is.”
B&M: What is your current take on the current investment environment in the UK? Do you think that we will see an upturn in 2016?
AL: Yes. I think the last 2 or 3 years IPO boom and value creation has probably meant a number of VC’s have been able to provide their LP’s with good returns. And this has fuelled the ability to raise new private venture capitalist funds. So they filled their coffers to some extent with cash.
VC firms around Europe and the US have a lot of fresh cash. That’s certainly my impression. And of course the market may not look that optimistic right now, but I think good science and experienced management teams will still be fundable, particularly in the UK where the market and environment is outstanding right now, for these kind of investments.
So I think that’s likely to continue in the private space. Whether the IPO market returns to what it was in ’15 or ’14 I don’t know.
B&M: Are you able to talk about what the proceeds will be used for? How that helps you to achieve or move towards a strategy you have for the next couple of years?
AL: The proceeds will be used to execute on MISSION’s strategy to take these two products through preclinical and Phase development. And as we’re doing this in selective patients that are likely responders to the therapy, we hope to see signs of early activity or proof principle or proof of activity in Phase 1. That’s going to be the main value creation event for us with this round of financing, and new generation.
B&M: Where do you see MISSION building further value in its business?
AL: The financing rounds have given us the ability to take our two key programmes forward on our own. And partnering is not something that’s prerequisite for executing that strategy.
With regards to the rest of our pipeline of DUB inhibitor programmes, we are certainly open to partner if we can access other capabilities elsewhere, in terms of biology or target validation or chemistry. But partnering is not something we necessarily have to do with this kind of cash.
B&M: What is the true extent that you hold personally for the company? You obviously joined in early 2015, so I guess you’ve just celebrated your year anniversary. Where would you like to see yourself taking the business in the next couple of years?
AL: The next couple of years the focus is all about executing the strategy and taking lead programmes through to phase 1. Right now the overarching ambition is to create a substantial value for patients and shareholders, within the areas of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.
B&M: Would you say you have any immediate challenges, milestones and in ection points?
AL: You could argue it’s a novel platform, therefore it’s novel chemistry and biology, and there might be biology or chemistry surprises along the way. At least that’s what you expect. Because it’s an untrodden territory. But other than that it’s the usual challenges in any preclinical early clinical development.
B&M: What is it that excites you about the potential of the company. What was it that attracted you first and foremost to join MISSION and what really excites you going forward?
AL: I left UK-US biotech in ’10 because I was in the company was sold at the time for $4 billion. Ever since that time I was looking for a company in Europe that had a phenomenal platform, a completely novel platform, with the potential to generate some really interesting assets addressing true unmet needs. With some fantastic investors on board that had deep pockets to take it all the way as well as some highly experienced people on board who had done this before, and some really interesting science. Those kinds of company are hard to find. And when MISSION was presented to me it was very clear to me that it was one of very few companies in Europe with potential. If you look at the platform, the people, where we can take this in cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Investors like Imperial, Roche, Pfizer, SR1, Woodford, it’s very clear this is a very unique company. That’s really what I think is exciting about this.
Anker Lundemose has extensive experience from business and corporate development as well as R&D in key therapeutic areas including oncology, diabetes and anti-infectives. He has a broad international network and experience, and has led successful mergers and acquisitions within biotech, venture investments and licensing.
MISSION Therapeutics was founded in 2011 to commercialise expert research into the ubiquitin pathway for the treatment of cancers and other diseases of unmet need. MISSION has built a World-leading platform for the discovery and development of first-in-class, small-molecule drugs that selectively target deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) – an emerging, and hitherto intractable, drug class that is attracting significant commercial interest as the potential ‘Next Kinase Area’.
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