Overview
Forge Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing novel medicines by combining bioinorganic with medicinal chemistry to target metalloenzymes. Metalloenzymes make up over 30% of all known enzymes in nature and are critically important for a wide range of biochemical processes and biological catalysis. Forge has developed a fundamentally new approach for the discovery of metalloenzyme inhibitors by focusing first on the metal in the enzyme active site.
Foundation
Forge was founded based on work that emerged over the last 15 years from the laboratory of Professor Seth Cohen at the University of California San Diego. The Cohen lab has pioneered the use of fragment based drug discovery (FBDD) to identify metalloenzyme inhibitors as well as forming significant insights into the understanding of bioinorganic chemistry for the benefit of human health.
Forge has licensed technology from UCSD.
Background
Forge’s laboratories became operational in January 2015 and, with financing from friends & family plus the Tech Coast Angels, hired a team of highly experienced drug developers, chemists and biologists to initiate the merging of bioinorganic and medicinal chemistry to tackle select metalloenzyme targets that were validated from a biology standpoint but suffered from chemistry limitations.
Strategy
This lead to the creation of Forge’s BLACKSMITH platform which comprises a deep knowledge of metalloenzymes, bioinorganic and medicinal chemistry know-how, and a focused library of proprietary metal-binding fragment pharmacophores (MBPs) that provide selective & diverse starting points for novel inhibitors. Our strategy is to use the BLACKSMITH platform to discover new chemistry for the treatment of a broad range of illnesses in areas of unmet needs with initial efforts in the area of infectious disease.
Financing
In March 2017, Forge was the largest recipient of CARB-X funding for $8.8M to support advancement of the Gram-negative LpxC, a zinc metalloenzyme, antibiotic program to IND filing. Further, in April 2017, Forge secured a $15M Series A financing to support corporate growth and pipeline advancement.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Brian Dorsey, M.S.
Partner of MagnaSci Ventures
Mario Polywka, D.Phil.
Former COO of Evotec AG
John Schmid, MBA
Former CFO of Trius and Auspex Pharmaceuticals
Steve Worland, Ph.D.
President and CEO of eFFECTOR Therapeutics
Zachary Zimmerman, Ph.D.
CEO of Forge Therapeutics
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
MICHAEL BARBACHYN, Ph.D.
Co-inventor of the antibiotics linezolid (marketed as Zyvox) and sutezolid, and former director-level contributor to antibacterial discovery at Pharmacia, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
SETH COHEN, Ph.D.
Scientific co-founder of Forge, professor and former Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego.
JOHN REX, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer and Director at F2G Ltd. and a voting member on the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB).
KAREN JOY SHAW, Ph.D.
Current Chief Scientific Officer of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals and former SVP Biology at Trius Therapeutics leading the microbiology strategy for Tedizolid development; former Antibacterial Team Leader Johnson & Johnson and Schering Plough.
LYNN SILVER, Ph.D.
Involved in the discovery of the first inhibitors of LpxC, and the development of the antibiotic Invanz at Merck where she held the title of senior investigator.
ANDREW TOMARAS, Ph.D.
Vice President and Director of Microbiology at BacterioScan Inc. and former LpxC program leader at Pfizer.
MARK WHITTAKER, D.PHIL.
SVP Drug Discovery at Evotec and former Director Medicinal Chemistry at British Biotech.
INVESTORS
