Is­raeli biotech rais­es $57M to go where cur­rent BRAF in­hibitors can't, with back­ing from No­var­tis, SR One

For the block­buster po­ten­tial of No­var­tis’ Tafin­lar and Pfiz­er’s Braftovi, all the BRAF in­hibitors on the mar­ket so far on­ly tar­get V600 mu­ta­tions — which ac­counts for rough­ly 50% of pa­tients.

Is­raeli biotech Nov­el­lus now has $57 mil­lion to de­vel­op a drug that they say can help the oth­er 50% who have every­thing else.

The Se­ries C will fund a Phase II tri­al for PLX-8394, a “para­dox break­er” that could block RAF with­out ac­ti­vat­ing MAPK sig­nal­ing. In a Phase I tri­al, a pa­tient with a BRAF fu­sion saw their tu­mor go away af­ter tak­ing the drug, al­low­ing Nov­el­lus to hit the ground run­ning.

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