Mi­cro-cap Mei Phar­ma lands $100M up­front on be­lea­guered PI3K path­way

For Mei Phar­ma, the road to Mo­ri­mo­to — an up­scale, dun­geon-like sushi restau­rant run by a celebri­ty chef, sur­round­ed by wavy ab­stract walls and crowd­ed with plex­i­glass booths where, last year, a mi­cro-cap biotech could make their case to a large glob­al part­ner be­tween events at BIO’s Philadel­phia con­ven­tion — was long.

Near­ly a decade ago, the San Diego biotech had seen a pre­sen­ta­tion at ASH on a pre­clin­i­cal can­cer pill that tar­get­ed a cel­lu­lar path­way known as PI3K, or phos­pho­inosi­tide 3-ki­nase in­hibitor. It seemed to be in­volved in a host of cell process­es, in­clud­ing as a back chan­nel for can­cers blocked in oth­er di­rec­tions. Biotechs were just fig­ur­ing out how to drug it.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER