Gluetacs Therapeutics completed a round of financing to accelerate the clinical transformation of protein-degrading drugs

ON：2024-05-31 TAG：GLUETACS THERAPEUTICS

Today, Gluetacs Therapeutics announced that it has secured Series A Funding, led by Huangpu Biopharmaceutical Fund and followed by Gortune Investment, Nanwan Baiao, and Synlinx. This round of financing will be primarily used to advance the clinical Phase I trial of Gluetacs’ product pipelines GT919 and GT929 and the development of pre-clinical projects.

Gluetacs is a biotechnology company incubated from Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies of ShanghaiTech University, focusing on the development of orally-administered small molecule protein degrader. With an attention to unmet medical needs in the areas of oncology and autoimmune diseases, Gluetacs possesses a unique dual research and development platform of GlueTacs^®, which mixes and matches the skills and advantages of both molecular glue and bifunctional degraders. Gluetacs has successfully advanced two molecular glue degrader pipelines into the clinical stage.

Gluetacs has a highly diversified proprietary E3 ubiquitin ligase ligand library with its own intellectual property rights, and has accumulated a large amount of know-how on molecular glue structure–activity relationships through high-throughput multi-dimensional experimental data, the comprehensive use of AI-aided machine-learning models for generalization and guidance of drug design, and further screening in wet laboratories. The molecular glue pipeline developed by the platform has high E3 ligase affinity and high target selectivity, and two product pipelines have already received clinical approval from NMPA and FDA, both GT919 and GT929 have observed response in their corresponding indications of relapsed or refractory hematologic tumors, and both are safe and manageable, and are in the process of further dose escalation.

In the field of bifunctional degraders, Gluetacs has been focusing on areas such as multiple solid tumors and autoimmune diseases, with a particular emphasis on patient subgroups that are resistant to or have undergone failure of existing treatments. Gluetacs connects proprietary E3 ubiquitin ligase ligands with linkers and target protein ligands, obtaining candidate compounds with high degradation selectivity and excellent oral bioavailability. Gluetacs will subsequently submit investigational new drug applications.

The GlueTacs^® dual R&D platform also has a large number of payload candidates that can be used as Degrader-Antibody Conjugates, which have demonstrated excellent ex vivo and in vivo efficacy in a wide range of hematological and solid tumors.

Dr. Xiaobao Yang, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gluetacs, said, we are very grateful to the four biopharmaceutical professional investment institutions for their full support and assistance to Gluetacs. Through this round investors’ comprehensive due diligence on the technology platform, research data and operation team, the enterprise has been conscious of room for further improvement, and it also makes me firmly confident in the enterprise’s own position in the industry. I can only reward all shareholders through the company’s continuous milestone progress in the future. At present, the preliminary results of two clinical pipelines, GT919 and GT929, further validates the company’s solid scientific research foundation, translational capability and platformization ability in the field of protein degradation, and we will continue to explore and challenge the development of pipelines for targets that have huge unmet medical needs, and further improve the power of execution and efficiency. This round of financing will accelerate the preclinical and clinical pipeline process, and further help realize the company’s corporate vision of “innovation, pioneering, and benefiting patients”.

Mr. Chaoyang Wu, Chairman of Huangpu Biopharmaceutical Fund, said, as protein degradation technology continues to gain momentum in clinical applications, several molecular glue and PROTAC pipelines have increasingly demonstrated their potential for different indications in clinic and have been coveted by multinational pharmaceutical companies one after another, which is why we have been focusing on the protein degradation field. Gluetacs has a long history of technology accumulation in the field of molecular glue and PROTAC technology, which is a solid foundation for its continuous innovation and development. We note that Gluetacs has achieved positive clinical data during its recent clinical trial, which fully reflects the potential of this product. As an investment institution focusing on the biopharmaceutical field, Huangpu Biopharmaceutical Fund is very optimistic about the future prospects of Gluetacs in the field of target protein degradation and expects it to accelerate its clinical trials, realize product launch as early as possible, enter the European and American markets with its unique and innovative products, build an international development strategy and bring benefits to patients around the world.

Gortune Investment said that molecular glues are a class of small molecule compounds with highly differentiated features, which are expected to overcome undruggable targets through protein degradation, and have become the frontier field of innovative drug R&D. Gluetacs was incubated from Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies of ShanghaiTech University, and has the core patents of molecular glue and PROTAC platforms with independent intellectual property rights, and the core members of the team are authoritative scientists in the field of protein degradation. Relying on the unique advantages of its platform in drug screening, two molecular glue INDs have been approved, and Gluetacs has completed first patient dosed for both two compounds. We are looking forward to growing together with Gluetacs and achieving more milestones.

According to Liangzi Wu, the project leader of Synlinx, Gluetacs is an enterprise growing up in Lingang New Area, and the founder, Prof. Xiaobao Yang, and his team have spent a long time of technical accumulation in molecular glue and PROTAC technology, and the clinical progress of multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has demonstrated solid preliminary results, and we expect that Gluetacs can accelerate the clinical trials and realize the product launch as soon as possible at home and abroad. Synlinx is a private equity fund manager under Lingang Group focusing on early-stage science and technology enterprises, incubating and nurturing innovative enterprises and creating an industrial innovation ecosystem for cutting-edge science and technology fields. Synlinx invests Gluetacs with its fund, which is a key layout in the field of protein degradation new drug development.