Read original article at Business Wire
May 27, 2020 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Circle Pharma, Inc., a macrocycle drug discovery and development company focused on intractable cancer targets, has appointed William G. Kaelin Jr. MD as Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board and Science Advisor to its Board of Directors.
Dr. Kaelin is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a professor of medicine at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine along with Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Prof. Greg Semenza for discovering how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability. This work led to an understanding of the role of Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF) proteins in von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) and other cancers. Dr. Kaelin has been widely recognized for his contributions to cancer biology, and has received awards including the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences from Rockefeller University and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Dr. Kaelin’s research focuses on the function of tumor suppressor proteins, such as pRb, pVHL and p53, with a goal of uncovering new approaches to treating cancer. Discoveries in Dr. Kaelin’s laboratory on the interactions between proteins in the Rb pathway and cyclins underlie Circle’s work to develop macrocycles that modulate cyclin function as cancer therapeutics.
“We are very fortunate to have Dr. Kaelin as our lead science advisor. His deep expertise in cancer biology and world-renowned reputation for scientific excellence will be of great value to Circle as we pursue our goals to develop new cancer therapeutics,” said David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., Circle’s President and CEO.
About Circle Pharma, Inc.
Circle is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery based on rational design and synthetic chemistry. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell-permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer. Its lead program targets cyclins A and E, which are part of the regulatory machinery that controls the progression of cells through the cell growth and division cycle. Inhibiting cyclins A and E has been shown to be synthetically lethal in cancers that carry mutations causing dysregulation of the Rb pathway.
More information: www.circlepharma.com
Contacts
David Earp
info@circlepharma.com
March 17, 2020
South San Francisco, CA, March 17, 2020, — Circle Pharma, Inc., a macrocycle drug discovery and development company focused on intractable cancer targets, today announced that it has raised $45 million in a Series B financing.
The financing was led by The Column Group, with participation by Nextech Invest. All investors from the prior round – ShangPharma, LifeForce Capital, and the Berkeley Catalyst Fund – joined the financing.
In conjunction with the financing, Peter Svennilson, founder and managing partner of The Column Group, and Thilo Schroeder, Ph.D., partner at Nextech Invest were appointed to the board. John Josey, Ph.D., formerly President and CEO of Peloton Therapeutics, was appointed to the board as Chairman.
Proceeds from the investment will be used to advance Circle’s work to develop inhibitors of Cyclin A and Cyclin E, and to expand the company’s pipeline.
“We are delighted to have these premier life science investors supporting our Series B financing” said David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., Circle’s President and CEO. “With this strong backing, we will expand our team, drive our cyclin targeted programs towards the clinic, and apply our macrocycle platform to additional intractable targets.”
Circle’s new board appointments:
Peter Svennilson is the founder and managing partner of The Column Group. He was the chairman of Aragon Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson) and Seragon Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Roche / Genentech) and was a board director of Gritstone Oncology, NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Immune Design and Constellation Pharmaceuticals. He is currently a board director of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Ribon Therapeutics and Carmot Therapeutics.
Thilo Schroeder, Ph.D., is a partner at Nextech Invest, a Zurich-based oncology-focused investment firm. He previously served on the board of Peloton Therapeutics (acquired by Merck) and Blueprint Medicines. He is currently a board director at IDEAYA Biosciences, Revolution Medicines, PMV Pharma, Silverback Therapeutics and a board observer at Black Diamond Therapeutics.
John Josey, Ph.D., served as the President, Chief Executive Officer, and member of the Board of Directors at Peloton Therapeutics from 2013 until its acquisition by Merck in 2019. From 2011 to 2013, he was President and Chief Scientific Officer at Peloton, and from 1998 to 2011, Vice President of Discovery Chemistry at Array Pharma.
The continuing members of Circle’s board of directors are Walter H. Moos, Ph.D., CEO of ShangPharma Innovation and Managing Director of Pandect Bioventures, Matthew P. Jacobson, Ph.D., Circle Pharma co-founder, chair of the department of pharmaceutical chemistry at U.C. San Francisco and also co-founder of Global Blood Therapeutics, Relay Therapeutics and Cedilla Therapeutics, and David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Circle Pharma.
About Circle Pharma, Inc.
Circle is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery based on rational design and synthetic chemistry. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell-permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer. Its lead program targets cyclins A and E, which are part of the regulatory machinery that controls the progression of cells through the cell growth and division cycle. Inhibiting cyclins A and E has been shown to be synthetically lethal in cancers that carry mutations causing dysregulation of the Rb pathway.
More information: www.circlepharma.com
Contact: info@circlepharma.com
Read original article at Business Wire
Read original article at Business Wire
October 8, 2019
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Circle Pharma, Inc. is delighted to congratulate Dr. Kaelin, on having been jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with co-recipients Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe of Oxford University and Dr. Gregg L. Semenza of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The prize was awarded for their work on discovering how cells detect and respond to changes in oxygen availability, a process that is key to the survival of many cancers.
Dr. Kaelin is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Dr. Kaelin is also an advisor to Circle Pharma.
In separate work, Dr. Kaelin and his colleagues at Dana Farber Cancer Institute identified cyclins A and E as potential targets for disrupting the growth of certain cancers. Their studies with peptide tool compounds showed that inhibiting these targets can selectively kill cancers that are dysregulated in the Rb pathway, in a process known as synthetic lethality. With guidance from Dr. Kaelin, Circle is developing macrocycles that inhibit cyclins A and E as potential new cancer therapies.
“We are thrilled that the pioneering work of Drs. Kaelin, Ratcliffe and Semenza has been recognized with the award of the Nobel Prize and congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition,” said Dr. David J. Earp, Circle’s CEO.
About Circle Pharma, Inc.
Circle is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery based on rational design and synthetic chemistry. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell-permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its internal development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer. Its lead program targets cyclins A and E, which are part of the regulatory machinery that controls the progression of cells through the cell growth and division cycle. Inhibiting cyclins A and E has been shown to be synthetic lethal in cancers that carry mutations causing dysregulation of the Rb pathway.
Contacts
David J. Earp, JD, PhD., 650.392.0350
info@circlepharma.com
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.- (BUSINESS WIRE) -Circle Pharma, Inc. today announced that results from its collaborative work with Pfizer Inc. to develop a potent and orally bioavailable macrocycle modulator of the chemokine receptor, CXCR7, have been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
The goal of the collaboration was to deploy Circle’s rational design platform for macrocycle therapeutics in order to improve the drug-like characteristics of an existing macrocycle compound, and in particular to develop a cell permeable, orally bioavailable compound with enhanced target affinity. As reported in the publication, the collaboration produced a series of permeable and potent derivative macrocycles, including a compound having >500-fold increase in potency (CXCR7 Ki of ~ 9nM versus 2 uM for the starting compound), good cell permeability and 18% oral bioavailability in rats.
Additionally, permeable CXCR7 binding compounds with novel macrocycle backbone scaffolds were discovered through the efforts of the collaboration. This finding was not described in the publication.
“Cell permeability and orally bioavailability have been long-standing and well recognized challenges in the development of macrocycle therapeutics: nearly all synthetic macrocycle compounds in clinical development are against extracellular targets and are delivered by injection,” noted David J. Earp, JD, PhD, Circle’s CEO. “Circle’s rational design approach coupled with efficient, low-cost synthesis uniquely enables us to design cell permeable, bioavailable macrocycles to address therapeutic targets that have been out of reach, including intracellular protein-protein interactions. This is a large target class with significant unmet clinical need.”
“This collaboration successfully achieved its very challenging objective of delivering a potent and orally bioavailable macrocycle targeting CXCR7,” said Spiros Liras, PhD, Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry, Pfizer.
The open-access scientific paper, entitled “Discovery of Potent and Orally Bioavailable Macrocyclic Peptide–Peptoid Hybrid CXCR7 Modulators,” is available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.7b01028.
About Macrocyclic Peptides
Macrocyclic peptides have the potential to allow drug developers to address the large proportion of known therapeutic targets (estimated at up to 80%) that are considered undruggable with conventional small molecule or biologic modalities. In particular, there is great interest in developing macrocycles to modulate protein-protein interactions, which play a role in almost all disease conditions, including cancer, fibrosis, inflammation and infection. However, the development of macrocyclic therapeutics has been limited by the need for a greater understanding of how to develop macrocycles with appropriate pharmacokinetics, cell permeability and oral bioavailability. Circle is applying its ability to design potent macrocycles with intrinsic cell permeability and drug-like characteristics to unlock access to challenging, high value therapeutic targets that have been out of reach by other approaches.
About Circle Pharma, Inc.
Circle is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery based on rational design and synthetic chemistry. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell-permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its internal development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer. Circle’s founders are Prof. Matthew P. Jacobson (Chair of the Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UC San Francisco and co-founder of Global Blood Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GBT) and Relay Therapeutics) and Prof. R. Scott Lokey (Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UC Santa Cruz and director of the UCSC Chemical Screening Center).
More information: www.circlepharma.com
Circle Pharma, Inc.
Cayla McEwen, 650-392-0363
info@circlepharma.com
Read online article
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Circle Pharma, Inc., a developer of macrocycle therapeutics, today announced that David Spellmeyer, PhD, has been appointed as its chief scientific officer.
“His deep experience in rational drug design and discovery is an excellent fit for Circle as we extend our platform for macrocycle discovery and advance our therapeutic pipeline towards the clinic.”
Dr. Spellmeyer brings over 25 years of broad industrial experience to Circle. He previously served as CTO & CIO at Nodality, CSO at Signature BioScience, Research Staff Member at IBM, as well as scientific, quality systems, and leadership roles at other biotechnology companies. David has been involved in more than 20 strategic corporate partnerships, M&A, and joint ventures, as well as several rounds of venture financing.
“We are delighted to welcome David to Circle’s senior leadership,” said David J. Earp, JD, PhD, Circle’s CEO. “His deep experience in rational drug design and discovery is an excellent fit for Circle as we extend our platform for macrocycle discovery and advance our therapeutic pipeline towards the clinic.”
“Circle is at an exciting point in its development. I am thrilled to be joining a company that has built such a promising discovery platform,” said Dr. Spellmeyer. “The combination of rational design and efficient, automated macrocycle synthesis is a new approach to this drug class, and the results so far are highly encouraging.”
Dr. Spellmeyer received his PhD in 1987 from UCLA, and completed his post-doctoral work in pharmaceutical chemistry at UCSF, where he holds an appointment as an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. David was named as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2009. He joins Circle’s team after working with the company in his role as an Executive-in-Residence at ShangPharma Innovation, an investor in Circle. He continues to advise ShangPharma in an EIR capacity.
About Macrocyclic Peptides
Macrocyclic peptides have the potential to allow drug developers to address the large proportion of known therapeutic targets (estimated at up to 80%) that are considered undruggable with conventional small molecule or biologic modalities. In particular, there is great interest in developing macrocycles to modulate protein-protein interactions, which play a role in almost all disease conditions, including cancer, fibrosis, inflammation and infection. However, the development of macrocyclic therapeutics has been limited by the need for a greater understanding of how to develop macrocycles with appropriate pharmacokinetics, cell permeability and oral bioavailability. Circle is applying its ability to design potent macrocycles with intrinsic cell permeability and drug-like characteristics to unlock access to challenging, high value therapeutic targets that have been out of reach to other approaches.
About Circle Pharma, Inc.
Circle is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery based on rational design and synthetic chemistry. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell-permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its internal development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer. Circle’s founders are Prof. Matthew P. Jacobson (Chair of the Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UC San Francisco and co-founder of Global Blood Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GBT) and Relay Therapeutics) and Prof. R. Scott Lokey (Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UC Santa Cruz and director of the UCSC Chemical Screening Center).
More information: www.circlepharma.com
Contacts
Circle Pharma, Inc.
Cayla McEwen, 650-392-0363
info@circlepharma.com
Read online article
Circle Pharma, Inc. today announced that it has completed an expansion of its Series A financing, with new investors W.I. Harper Group, Elements Partners, LLC, Whitesun Healthcare Ventures Limited and LifeForce Capital joining the round. Mission Bay Capital led Circle’s Series A, with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), ShangPharma Investment Group, Ltd. and a syndicated group of individual investors subscribing at the initial close. With this subsequent closing, a total of approximately $6.5M of shares of Circle’s Series A Preferred Stock has been issued in the Series A financing.
“We are gratified to have this new group of high-caliber investors joining our first equity financing,” said David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., Circle’s president and CEO. “The funds will support Circle’s platform development and our therapeutic pipeline, which is focused on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in oncogenic pathways. This is an exciting time for Circle. We are adding new targets to our pipeline, including MCL1 and the substrate binding site of cyclinA / cdk2, both of which are important oncology targets that have proven challenging for small molecule drug development. Our chemistry process development work has recently successfully achieved key steps required for a more highly automated synthesis platform. Finally, with support from Pfizer, we are building a physical library of macrocycles which are predicted to have optimized permeability. This library will complement our rational design/virtual library screening approach. We will begin synthesis of the physical library shortly, enabling us to deliver it to Pfizer, and potentially other collaborators, for screening use later this year. We are especially delighted to welcome James Lu to our board in connection with this expanded Series A investment. He brings deep experience building high-growth, global companies both as an investor and in management roles.”
Mr. Lu is a Managing Director of WI Harper, a cross border venture capital firm investing in leading healthcare and technology startups in the U.S. and China. Previously, Mr. Lu co-founded and was a General Partner of iD Ventures America (formerly Acer Technology Ventures), which managed several funds that were early investors in companies such as iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT); Harmonix Music (acquired by MTV/Viacom (NYSE:VIA)); and Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ:MPWR). In prior roles, Mr. Lu was General Counsel of the Acer Group and earlier was a corporate and commercial attorney with the McCutchen law firm in San Francisco and a banker at JP Morgan in New York. Mr. Lu graduated with a BA from Yale College, an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law.
Peter Liu, Founder and Chairman of WI Harper Group commented “we are seeing excellent opportunities for investing in ground-breaking life science companies that are advancing new technologies and addressing unsolved problems. Circle Pharma is one such company; we are pleased to participate in their Series A financing and look forward to building a strong relationship with the management team and the other investors.”
“Completion of Circle’s Series A financing strengthens Circle’s investor base and brings additional depth on the technical side, relations with strategic partners and, with WI Harper and Elements, connections to activities and initiatives outside of the U.S., and especially in key Asia markets,” said Douglas Crawford, Ph.D., managing director of Mission Bay Capital.
About Macrocyclic Peptides
Macrocyclic peptides have the potential to allow drug developers to address the large proportion of known therapeutic targets (estimated at up to 80%) that are considered undruggable with conventional small molecule or biologic modalities. In particular, there is great interest in developing macrocycles to modulate protein-protein interactions, which play a role in almost all disease conditions, including cancer, fibrosis, inflammation and infection. However, the development of macrocyclic therapeutics has been limited by the need for a greater understanding of how to develop macrocycles with appropriate pharmacokinetics, cell permeability and oral bioavailability. Circle is applying its ability to design potent macrocycles with intrinsic cell permeability and drug-like characteristics to unlock access to challenging, high value therapeutic targets that have been out of reach to other approaches.
About Circle Pharma, Inc.
Circle is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery based on rational design and synthetic chemistry. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell- permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its internal development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer. Circle’s founders are Prof. Matthew P. Jacobson (Chair of the Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UC San Francisco and co- founder of Global Blood Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GBT) and Relay Therapeutics) and Prof. R. Scott Lokey (Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UC Santa Cruz and director of the UCSC Chemical Screening Center).
South San Francisco, CA, April 25, 2017
Circle Pharma, Inc. today announced a Series A financing round in which it has issued over $4.5M of shares of Series A Preferred Stock. The financing was led by Mission Bay Capital, with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), ShangPharma Investment Group, Ltd. and a syndicated group of individual investors joining the round. In connection with the financing, Walter H. Moos, Ph.D., representing ShangPharma, has joined the Circle Board of Directors.
“We are delighted with the participation of such high caliber investors in our first equity round,” said David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., Circle’s president and CEO. “With our seed funding, we established Circle’s computational design platform, advanced our synthetic chemistry capabilities in collaboration with ChemPartner, and engaged in a target-based collaboration with Pfizer. The Series A funds will be used to support Circle’s therapeutic pipeline, which is focused on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in oncogenic pathways. We are also now building a physical library of cell- permeable macrocycles to augment our computational design tools, and this library will later be available to our collaboration partners. We are particularly excited to welcome Walter Moos to our Board of Directors. Dr. Moos brings a wealth of life sciences R&D experience, having served most recently as the president of SRI Biosciences and previously in senior executive roles at MitoKor, Chiron and Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis. His teams have advanced numerous pharmaceutical products from discovery to commercialization, and we are fortunate to have him join Circle.”
“I am very much looking forward to taking an active role on Circle’s board,” said Walter Moos. “The combination of innovative technology and the great team at Circle could help unlock high value targets that have long been considered out of reach of drug developers.”
Dr. Moos has served on about 20 business and scientific boards, including Amunix, Oncologic (Aduro), Onyx (Amgen), Rigel and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).
About Macrocyclic Peptides
Macrocyclic peptides have the potential to allow drug developers to address the large proportion of known therapeutic targets (estimated at up to 80%) that are considered undruggable with conventional small molecule or biologic modalities. In particular, there is great interest in developing macrocycles to modulate protein-protein interactions, which play a role in almost all disease conditions, including cancer, fibrosis, inflammation and infection. However, the development of macrocyclic therapeutics has been limited by the need for a greater understanding of how to develop macrocycles with appropriate pharmacokinetics, cell permeability and oral bioavailability. Circle’s ability to design potent macrocycles with intrinsic cell permeability could unlock access to challenging, high value therapeutic targets that have been out of reach to other approaches.
About Circle Pharma, Inc.
Circle is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery based on rational design and synthetic chemistry. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell- permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its internal development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer. Circle’s founders are Prof. Matthew P. Jacobson (Chair of the Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UC San Francisco and co- founder of Global Blood Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GBT) and Relay Therapeutics) and Prof. R. Scott Lokey (Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UC Santa Cruz and director of the UCSC Chemical Screening Center).
December 21, 2016, South San Francisco
CirclePharma, Inc., today announced that it will apply its computational design and synthetic chemistry platform to design and create a physical screening library of novel macrocyclicpeptides. Once completed, the library is initially expected to comprise several hundred macrocycles that will be designed to potentially disrupt bioactive conformations commonly found in protein-protein interactions known to drive disease processes, and will deploy backbone scaffolds screened in silica for intrinsic cell permeability characteristics. In addition, the design of the library will permit the simple creation of derivative libraries tailored to specific features of a therapeutic target class.
PfizerInc.(NYSE:PFE) has entered into an agreement with Circle under which Pfizer will provide support for the library build, and Circle has granted Pfizer non-exclusive rights to screen the library against certaintargets. The rights granted to Pfizer exclude specified targets for which Circle has reserved exclusive rights to screen the library.
“This physical library will complement Circle’s target-specific computational design toolkit,” said David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., Circle’s President and CEO. “We expect to use the library for our internal pipeline discovery work, and we will make it available to all of our collaboration partners in drug discovery.”
About Macrocyclic Peptides
Macrocyclic peptides have the potential to provide access to the large proportion of therapeutic targets (estimated at up to 80%) that are considered undruggable with conventional small molecule or biologic modalities. Inparticular, there is great interest in developing macrocycles to modulate protein-protein interactions, which play a role in almost all disease conditions, including cancer, fibrosis, inflammation and infection. However, the development of macrocyclic therapeutics has been limited to this point by the need for a greater understanding of how to design macrocycles with appropriate pharm acokinetics, cell permeability and oral bioavailability. As a result, most clinical-stage macro cyclic peptide drugs address extracellular protein targets because of the challenge of identifying cell permeable macrocycles. The ability to design potent macrocycles with intrinsic permeability is expected to give access to a large number of important therapeutic targets that have been out of reach to this point.
About Circle Pharma
Founded by computational chemist Prof. Matthew Jacobson (UC San Francisco) and peptide chemist Prof. Scott Lokey (UC Santa Cruz), Circle Pharma is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell-permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its internal development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer.
September 12, 2016, South San Francisco, CA
Circle Pharma, Inc., today announced that co-founder Prof. Matthew Jacobson has been appointed Chair of the UCSF Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
“This is a terrific recognition of Matt’s exceptional accomplishments as a scientist and his passionate commitment as an educator,” said David J. Earp, JD, PhD, Circle’s President and CEO. “We are very appreciative of the guidance and leadership that our two co-founders – Matt Jacobson and Scott Lokey – continue to provide to Circle.”
Prof. Jacobson’s work at UCSF has focused on understanding the complex interactions of drugs and proteins and the implications of the underlying molecular dynamics for biology and drug discovery. In addition to his founding role in Circle, Prof. Jacobson was also a co-founder of Global Blood Therapeutics (NADAQ:GBT) and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Schrodinger, LLC. He has authored more that 140 publictions and has served on the editorial boards of eight journals. Prof. Jacobson joined the UCSF faculty in 2002. He earned a PhD in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and did his postdoctoral work at Oxford and Columbia.
About Circle Pharma
Founded by computational chemist Prof. Matthew Jacobson (UC San Francisco) and peptide chemist Prof. Scott Lokey (UC Santa Cruz), and seed funded by Pfizer and Mission Bay Capital in 2014 and ShangPharma Investment Group Limited in 2015, Circle Pharma is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell- permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its internal development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer.
January 19, 2016, South San Francisco
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