When Bristol Myers Squibb bought the heart disease-focused biotech MyoKardia for $13 billion in cash in the fall of 2020, it was seen as an endorsement of advances being made in cardiology, an area the drug industry was increasingly ignoring. But for MyoKardia’s CEO, Tassos Gianakakos, it represented a bit of a problem: He “fell in love” with cardiology, and he was also almost instantly out of a job.
On Friday he announced that he and MyoKardia’s executive team have raised $300 million for a new heart disease company, Kardigan, that will focus on targeted drugs for heart disease. The Series A funds come from three prominent venture capital firms: Perceptive Advisors, ARCH Venture Partners, and Sequoia Heritage. Kardigan, based in South San Francisco and Princeton, N.J., currently has about 60 employees.
“I started thinking about this pretty much the day after BMS bought MyoKardia, because I was, I was sort of shown the door,” Gianakakos said. “I mean that in a positive and affectionate way.”
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