Targeted protein degradation is really taking off. Besides Arvinas, C4 Therapeutics, and Kymera, Cedilla Therapeutics, founded by Thirdrock Ventures, has emerged with a $56 million funding round. But unlike the others, which develop bifunctional molecules to tag proteins for degradation by recruiting an E3 ligase to the target, they do things a bit differently: the biotech plans to develop small molecule drugs to destabilize disease-causing. Once the proteins are unstable, the cell recognizes them and the ubiquitin system is recruited to do its job. This seems interesting since PROTACs are rather big compared to small molecule drugs. And let’s not forget all of Novartis’s efforts in the field, which of course also seems logical with Jay Bradner, one of the cofounders of C4 Therapeuitcs heading NIBR.
More information
For more information on Cedilla Therapeutics in specific and the field in general, see the links below:
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2017/04/12/protein-degradation-time