The es­tro­gen re­cep­tor (ER) — which is in­hib­it­ed by tar­get­ed drugs such as the hor­mone ther­a­py ta­mox­ifen and aro­matase in­hibitors — is a tran­scrip­tion fac­tor im­pli­cat­ed in 75% of breast can­cers. Re­search from Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty sug­gests that the DNA in­ter­ac­tions and tran­scrip­tion­al scope of ER re­ly on a pro­tein that plays a key role in de­ter­min­ing tu­mor growth and pro­gres­sion — even when re­sis­tance to ex­ist­ing drugs has built up.

Ja­son Car­roll Az­e­ria

Az­e­ria Ther­a­peu­tics — a com­pa­ny found­ed by Ja­son Car­roll from the Can­cer Re­search UK Cam­bridge In­sti­tute at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge who spear­head­ed the re­search — has now en­ticed Syn­cona and about $41.4 mil­lion in fund­ing to de­vel­op ther­a­pies for drug-re­sis­tant breast can­cer.

The com­pa­ny, which was spun out of Sixth El­e­ment Cap­i­tal and Can­cer Re­search UK’s com­mer­cial part­ner­ships team in 2017, is laser-fo­cused on pi­o­neer fac­tors — the pro­teins that dic­tate where in the genome tran­scrip­tion fac­tors as­so­ciate with DNA and what genes are reg­u­lat­ed.

Its lead pro­gram is tar­get­ing the pi­o­neer fac­tor FOXA1, which has shown to be in­stru­men­tal in the tu­mor de­vel­op­ment and main­te­nance of ER-pos­i­tive lu­mi­nal breast can­cer (typ­i­cal­ly 30% of these pa­tients progress to late-stage en­docrine-re­sis­tant dis­ease). FOXA1 is req­ui­site in all ER-DNA in­ter­ac­tions and in the ab­sence of FOXA1, ER does not li­aise with DNA, switch genes on or cause cells to grow. Sig­nif­i­cant­ly, FOXA1 is al­so es­sen­tial for cells that have grown re­sis­tant to stan­dard ther­a­pies, such as ta­mox­ifen, Car­roll’s re­search sug­gests.

The fund­ing will help Az­e­ria shep­herd the ex­per­i­men­tal ther­a­py in­to the clin­ic and help the com­pa­ny ex­pand its ar­se­nal of in­ves­ti­ga­tion­al drugs.

The Cam­bridge, UK-based drug de­vel­op­er pre­vi­ous­ly raised £5.5 mil­lion in a Se­ries A fi­nanc­ing from the CRT Pi­o­neer Fund, which is man­aged by UK based fund man­ag­er Sixth El­e­ment Cap­i­tal.

This fresh in­jec­tion of £32 mil­lion in Se­ries B fi­nanc­ing was led by Syn­cona, which made a hefty £29.5 mil­lion com­mit­ment.

One of Europe’s most high-profile biopharma investors is getting $540 million to invest in new crossover deals for late-stage companies.

The Paris-based VC says the fresh Sofinnova Crossover Fund raise positions them as the “largest crossover investor in Europe dedicated to late-stage biopharma and medtech investments.”

They got a leg up in France after winning a special “Tibi” designation from the French government, giving them access to a pool of €6 billion that helped them gain an edge with institutional investors. Since they were founded close to 50 years ago, the venture group has backed more than 500 companies and currently has more than €2 billion under management.

CRLs. 483s. CBER, CDER and RWE. For biopharma professionals, these acronyms command attention because of the fundamental role FDA plays in drug development. Now Endpoints is doubling down on regulatory coverage, and launching a weekly report focusing on developments out of White Oak, with analysis and insight into what it all means.

Coverage will be led by our new senior editor, Zachary Brennan. He joins Endpoints from POLITICO, where he covered pharma. Prior to that he was the managing editor for Regulatory Focus, a news publication from the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society.

Janux Therapeutics had kept a relatively low profile since being founded back in 2017 but burst onto the scene late last year when Merck plunked down more than $1 billion in promised milestones for its T cell engagers. Now, less than three months later, the small biotech has clinched its first round of private funding led by some prominent backers.

As it prepares its first programs for INDs, Janux completed a $56 million Series A on Wednesday morning, with Jay Lichter’s Avalon Ventures joining forces with new investors OrbiMed and RA Capital Management to fund the company. Janux will use the cash to primarily advance its T cell engagers targeting PSMA and TROP2, which are expected to hit the clinic in the first and second quarters of 2022, respectively.