Cedil­la Ther­a­peu­tics launched just over two years ago with a $56 mil­lion Se­ries A and a plan to chart new ter­ri­to­ry in the pro­tein degra­da­tion space. Now, CEO San­dra Glucks­mann is fol­low­ing up with a $57.6 mil­lion Se­ries B round to steer the Cam­bridge, MA-based biotech in a slight­ly dif­fer­ent di­rec­tion.

The com­pa­ny is cur­rent­ly fo­cused on find­ing new small mol­e­cule bind­ing sites — which may af­fect pro­tein degra­da­tion, in­hi­bi­tion or both — to drug the un­drug­gable.

“The sci­ence takes you to places, and we broad­ened that um­brel­la,” Glucks­mann told End­points News, adding lat­er: “You’ve got to go where the sci­ence goes, right?”

The Se­ries B — led by Cas­din Cap­i­tal and Box­er Cap­i­tal of Tavi­s­tock Group — will fund ear­ly de­vel­op­ment of the biotech’s small mol­e­cule pro­grams, in­clud­ing pre­clin­i­cal work on its first two prod­uct can­di­dates, which Cedil­la is keep­ing un­der wraps for now. Glucks­mann said the com­pa­ny has about 5 or 6 on­col­o­gy pro­grams run­ning in par­al­lel, which are still years away from the clin­ic.

“One of our tar­gets is some­thing that peo­ple have been try­ing to drug for over 20 years,” she hint­ed.

Back in 2018, Cedil­la was aim­ing to up­stream a com­mon ap­proach to pro­tein degra­da­tion by us­ing small mol­e­cule drugs to desta­bi­lize dis­ease-caus­ing pro­teins. The pro­tein degra­da­tion field has seen plen­ty of cash flow this year, with new­com­er Jan­pix rak­ing in a $19 mil­lion launch round ear­li­er this month, days af­ter C4, one of the pi­o­neers, land­ed its IPO.

Cedil­la’s fo­cus to­day is still on small mol­e­cules, but for in­hi­bi­tion. “By un­der­stand­ing the nov­el tar­get bi­ol­o­gy, how the pro­teins are mod­i­fied, how they take on dif­fer­ent states, we are able to re­veal new small mol­e­cule bind­ing pock­ets, or bind­ing sites,” Glucks­mann said. “The bind­ing of that small mol­e­cule may af­fect degra­da­tion and/or in­hi­bi­tion,” she added lat­er.

In ad­di­tion to the Se­ries B, Cedil­la is bring­ing Cas­din CIO and founder Eli Cas­din and Box­er se­nior VP Do­minik Naczyn­s­ki on­to its board of di­rec­tors. Since launch­ing in 2018, the biotech has grown from a hand­ful of em­ploy­ees to 35 staffers.

“It takes a vil­lage to de­vel­op drugs,” Glucks­mann said. “And it’s great to have so­phis­ti­cat­ed and ex­pe­ri­enced in­vestors to be part of the team.”

Glucks­mann was re­cruit­ed by Third Rock as an en­tre­pre­neur-in-res­i­dence in 2017, with the in­ten­tion that she would launch Cedil­la. The team took six months to nail down a busi­ness and re­search plan, then un­veiled the com­pa­ny in 2018.

“For me what was ex­cit­ing was to take well-val­i­dat­ed on­col­o­gy tar­gets — where we un­der­stand the bi­ol­o­gy [and] we un­der­stand the role that they play in hu­man dis­ease — and then a tool, which is small mol­e­cules that we know how to de­vel­op, and com­bin­ing those two … to do some­thing nov­el with a team that is ex­pe­ri­enced,” she said.

Third Rock chipped in again to the Se­ries B, as well as new in­vestors Eli Lil­ly and Schroder Ad­veq.

The FDA on Tuesday released a warning letter sent earlier this month to the Mason, OH-based site of Procter & Gamble Manufactura, raising questions about the list of ingredients on the label and in the electronic filing.

The warning says that for P&G’s over-the-counter Vicks Nyquil Severe Hot Remedy Cold and Flu Plus Congestion, there’s a “mismatched” list of active ingredients between the labeling and the electronic listing file. The listing file for the active ingredients did not match the active ingredients in the electronic file.

The Federal Trade Commission has gotten involved in a patent feud over Supernus’ Parkinson’s drug Apokyn, a case the agency said may have ‘‘significant implications” for patients who rely on the drug.

Sage Chemical won the first generic approval for its Apokyn formulation (also known as apomorphine hydrochloride injection) back in 2022. The non-ergoline dopamine agonist is approved to treat Parkinson’s symptoms during “off episodes,” such as difficulty moving, tremors and intense cramping. However, regulators specified that the approval pertained to the generic drug cartridges only, not the injector pen required for administration.