Pfizer Launches Ph3-Ready Startup Therapeutics With $103M
Pfizer has announced the launch of its six-person startup , SpringWorks Therapeutics, with a $103 million Series A financing as well as rights to four experimental drugs from Pfizer. Pfizer’s contribution towards its spin-off will consist of both equity capital and royalty- and milestone-bearing licenses to experimental therapies.
The four therapies include nirogacestat for use in patients with desmoid tumours, the potential neurofibromatosis treatment PD-0325901, senicapoc for hereditary xerocytosis and PF-0445784 to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“SpringWorks Therapeutics will pursue the development of medicines across therapeutic areas, focused on diseases where there is an urgent need and the potential for the greatest impact for patients,” said Lara Sullivan, founder and president of SpringWorks Therapeutics and a former vice president at Pfizer, in a statement. “We initially have rights to four very promising experimental therapies and, over time, plan to expand our pipeline by partnering with other life science companies and academic institutions who share in our mission.”
Since Pfizer is a huge company with an equally huge pipeline of drugs, it obviously cannot develop all the drugs it has. Therefore, in a strategic move has spun out SpringWorks. You simply spin a lineup of your best, furthest advanced
experimental meds into a new company, while looking to add more when the time is ripe.SpringWorks said it is set to begin late-stage development of the gamma-secretase inhibitor nirogacestat in desmoid tumours and the MEK 1/2 inhibitor PD-0325901 in neurofibromatosis type 1. In addition, SpringWorks has decided to develop the Gardos channel blocker senicapoc for hereditary xerocytosis after the drug previously failed in a Phase III study of patients with sickle cell anaemia. Meanwhile, the experimental FAAH inhibitor PF-0445784, which SpringWorks plans to test in PTSD, was being developed by Pfizer as a potential pain therapy when a Phase I trial of another FAAH inhibitor from Bial caused brain death in one patient and neurological damage in others. Lara Sullivan, who will serve as president of SpringWorks, said the FDA has reviewed data on PF-0445784 and allowed the company to move ahead with testing.
Freda Lewis-Hall, M.D., DFAPA, EVP and CMO at Pfizer, explained: “Pfizer sees SpringWorks Therapeutics as a ground-breaking new model for collaboration to deliver on the promise of medical research and development, so that more people have the potential to overcome disease. We hope that our investment in SpringWorks Therapeutics will, over time, enable us to realize even more value for patients and society.”
“SpringWorks Therapeutics started as an idea about a new way to get things done with—and for—patients, it’s been a tremendous team effort, and we and our partners are excited to see it become a reality.”
The startup will be led by executive chairman Daniel Lynch, while Sullivan will leave her role as head of portfolio strategy for Pfizer’s early-stage pipeline and medical collaboration funding platform to serve as president.
