Medicxi backs Chinese biotech’s next-gen KRAS G12C drug with $40M injection

The search for next-gen­er­a­tion KRAS drugs that can do what Am­gen and Bris­tol My­ers Squibb’s med­i­cines can’t has led to Medicxi’s first-ever in­vest­ment in Chi­na.

The Eu­ro­pean VC firm is pour­ing $40 mil­lion in­to Shang­hai-based D3 Bio, whose KRAS G12C in­hibitor is cur­rent­ly in Phase 2 tri­als for non-small cell lung can­cer, col­orec­tal can­cer and pan­cre­at­ic can­cer.

While Am­gen and Mi­rati (which was ac­quired by Bris­tol My­ers) made a ma­jor break­through by drug­ging KRAS G12C — a tar­get long con­sid­ered un­drug­gable — physi­cians are still hop­ing for bet­ter drugs, said Francesco de Ru­ber­tis, co-founder and part­ner at Medicxi, in an in­ter­view with End­points News. In par­tic­u­lar, he cit­ed the need for longer du­ra­tion of re­sponse, high­er re­sponse rates, depth of re­sponse and CNS pen­e­tra­tion of brain metas­tases.

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