Stanford’s I-O Spinout Forty Seven Bags $75M in Series B Financing
I-O company, Forty Seven Inc., has now closed $75 million Series B financing, bringing in a total of $150M in venture capital.
A spinout of Stanford’s Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, the firm has exclusive licenses to a broad package of intellectual property from Stanford, including seven issued U.S. patents, four issued foreign patents, and over 100 pending patent applications worldwide that cover several product candidates targeting cancer immune evasion pathways.
The round was led by new investor Wellington Management Company with existing investors Clarus, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures and GV (Google Ventures) participating.
The resources will be directed towards early-stage studies for its lead drug, Hu5F9-G4, an antibody targeting CD47. And Forty Seven execs are already setting the stage for registration studies.
Led by CEO Mark McCamish, Forty Seven is developing therapies licensed from Stanford University targeting cancer immune evasion pathways. The lead program Hu5F9-G4 is a monoclonal antibody against the CD47 receptor, a “don’t eat me” signal that cancer cells commandeer to avoid being ingested by the immune system. This antibody is currently being evaluated in two Phase 1 clinical studies in patients with solid tumors and in patients with
acute myeloid leukemia.“Forty Seven continues to make tremendous progress across multiple clinical trials,” said CEO Mark McCamish. “The financing allows us to rigorously explore the clinical response of different tumors to Hu5F9-G4 mono- and combination therapy and determine the optimal pathway to rapidly bring this new treatment option to patients.”
Dr. Dennis Henner, Board member and Managing Director at Clarus said “Forty Seven’s Hu5F9-G4 is a first-in-class CD47 antagonist that, based on strong science, preclinical and emerging clinical data, has potential applications in many different tumor types as a monotherapy or in combination therapy with tumor-targeting antibodies and potentially with other immuno-oncology agents. With this new financing, the company will be able to generate clinical data in multiple settings and will be well positioned to initiate registration trials.”
