Targeted protein degrader drugs witness staggering 2,000% surge in venture financing in 2022, reveals GlobalData

New Delhi: Investors and biopharmaceutical companies are showing interest in targeted protein degrader (TPD) drugs. Subsequently, TPD drugs have experienced a staggering over 2,000% increase in the total value of venture financing deals from $33 million in 2017 to $707 million in 2022, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Alison Labya, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “This growth in venture financing was driven by the increase in the number of TPD drugs advancing into clinical development, as well as preclinical data demonstrating improved selectivity and potency compared to traditional small molecule inhibitors.”

TPD drugs selectively target disease-causing proteins by leveraging intracellular protein degradation mechanisms, such as the ubiquitin-proteasome system and autophagy. Since this was previously difficult to treat with conventional small molecules, TPD drugs have spurred considerable interest among investors and biopharmaceutical companies.

In May 2023, US-based biotech Cullgen secured an additional $35 million in venture financing towards the development of its pipeline of PROTAC TPD drugs for the treatment of oncology diseases, contributing to a total of $166 million of venture capital across four deals from 2018 to 2023.

According to GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center Deals Database, venture financing for TPD drugs reported an increase in activity with a total deal value of $3.3 billion from 2018 to 2023YTD. Furthermore, TPDs observed a marked increase in venture financing deal volume and value from 2020 onwards, with a peak in 2021 of $1 billion across 20 deals.

Oncology was the top therapy area for venture financing deals involving TPD drugs with a total deal value of $3 billion from 2018 to 2023YTD. “Central nervous system” and “immunology” came second and third, securing total deal values of $764 million and $893 million, respectively, from 2018 to 2023YTD.

Labya adds: “The majority of TPD drugs that have received venture financing were early-stage ‘Preclinical’, amounting to $1.6 billion, and ‘Discovery’ with $800 million, demonstrating investor confidence in the TPD proof of mechanism to further move into clinical trial development and then potential therapies.”

US-based biopharmaceutical company, Olema Pharmaceuticals, received the largest total venture financing of $187 million across four deals in 2020 for the development of its selective estrogen receptor degrader, palazestrant, currently in Phase II for ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer.

In June 2020, US-based pharma company C4 Therapeutics secured $170 million of venture financing towards the development of its portfolio of targeted therapies, including its Phase II TPD drugs CFT-7455 for multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and CFT-8634 for the treatment of solid tumors, representing the largest round of venture financing for TPD drugs.

Labya concludes: “With multiple TPD drugs entering clinical trial development, the therapeutic potential of TPDs has been recognized by investors in the biopharmaceutical industry. However, long-term safety and efficacy of TPD drugs over conventional therapeutics will remain a top priority for companies, to enable the success of this drug class in clinical stage trials and in being brought to market.”