Bringing the total raised for the current class of 4Catalyzer companies to a quarter-billion dollars
GUILFORD, Conn. –Feb. 2, 2016– LAM Therapeutics closed a $40 million financing to accelerate the development of therapeutics for the treatment of rare diseases and cancer. LAM Therapeutics is a 4Catalyzer company. 4Catalyzer is Connecticut’s premier biotechnology startup incubator and with this financing has raised a total of a quarter billion dollars to support its current class of startups.
LAM Therapeutics leverages Next Gen sequencing, advances in genome editing, computer science and artificial intelligence to discover and develop medicines faster, with more precision and at a lower cost than conventional approaches.
“Spending a decade and a billion dollars to bring a drug to market is not consistent with global healthcare needs,” said Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, co-founder of LAM Therapeutics. “We built LAM Therapeutics from the ground up to transform the way we develop medicines. We are at an inflection point; DNA sequencing and computer science have both advanced over a million fold since our first attempts to create true genomics-based medicines. Now is the time to tackle our greatest challenges, including rare diseases and cancer, and we have the technological and computation power to get the job done.”
Dr. Rothberg is best known for inventing and bringing to market the first “Next Gen” or high-speed, DNA sequencing technology, for which he is being awarded the 2016 Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Obama this spring. To achieve his vision for LAM Therapeutics, Dr. Rothberg has brought together a unique team with deep experience in genomics, computational biology, AI, and drug development.
“We bring together teams to do things no one has done before and to produce products that someday could save the life of somebody you love,” said Dr. Rothberg. “We are always looking for gifted people to join 4Catalyzer companies. If you make chips like Gordon Moore, lasers like Charles Townes, or break codes like Hedy Lamarr, come join us.”
LAM’s technologies include genome-editing methods developed by LAM co-founder Dr. Tian Xu, a world leader in genome engineering, Vice Chair of Genetics at the Yale School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. “We are delighted that we were able to quickly bring two precision medicines into the clinic by combining Dr. Rothberg’s decades of expertise in DNA sequencing and Professor Xu’s experience in genome engineering,” said Dr. Henri Lichenstein, co-founder and President of LAM. “Their expertise in reading and writing genomes, when enabled with leading-edge computer science, allows us to find the best targets, identify appropriate patients, and create predictive diagnostics for our therapeutics.”
LAM Therapeutics’ clinical stage drugs include:
LAM-001 – The first inhaled mTOR inhibitor in Phase 1 clinical development for lymphangioleiomyomatosis and related indications.
LAM-002 – An exquisitely selective kinase inhibitor in Phase 1 clinical development for relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma.
Each trial is designed to assess the safety and tolerability of the drugs and follows acceptance of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
About LAM Therapeutics
LAM Therapeutics develops drugs for rare diseases and cancer. LAM takes advantage of the inflection point in biological understanding and computer science, leveraging big data from Next Gen sequencing, genome editing, chemical genomics, and combinational drug screening, to develop precision therapeutics and companion diagnostics. LAM has advanced two drugs into the clinic: LAM-001 for lymphangioleiomyomatosis, and LAM-002 for B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
About 4Catalyzer
4Catalyzer is a startup accelerator dedicated to transforming 21st century medicine by solving the most challenging problems in the life sciences and medicine. 4Catalyzer companies develop breakthrough therapeutics or sensors, and pair them with deep learning (AI) to enable a unique window into biology and medicine. 4Catalyzer is driven by the desire to develop products that will significantly improve the lives of people we love.
For more information contact:
Wes Conard, 4Catalyzer
Head of Marketing + Communications
[email protected]
415-385-4455
For more information, www.lamtherapeutics.com.