Startup Seragon Pharmaceuticals Lands $30 Million in Series A Financing

SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - October 16, 2013) - Seragon Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced it has raised a total of $30 million in a Series A financing to advance the company’s pipeline of therapies targeting hormone-driven cancers, including ARN-810 for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. The financing included participation from venBio, Topspin Fund, Aisling Capital, OrbiMed Advisors and The Column Group.

“This financing provides Seragon with the resources to advance our pipeline, including ARN-810 which is currently being evaluated in a Phase I trial for ER+ metastatic breast cancer,” said Richard A. Heyman, Ph.D., President and CEO of Seragon Pharmaceuticals. “We are pleased to have the continued support of the Aragon investors. We look forward to advancing ARN-810 through the clinic in breast cancer and continue to build our other selective estrogen receptor degraders for breast cancer, endometrial and ovarian cancer.”

Seragon is focused on developing new treatments for estrogen-driven cancers based on its Selective Estrogen Receptor Degrader (SERD) platform. Seragon was spun out of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. prior to the sale of Aragon to Johnson & Johnson in August 2013 and is based in San Diego, CA. For more information, visit www.seragonpharm.com.

About SERD Program

Seragon Pharmaceuticals’ orally active selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs) represent a potential new treatment for progressive metastatic breast cancer that may circumvent the problem of resistance to anti-hormonal therapies. SERDs are estrogen receptor antagonists that also induce a conformational change that results in the degradation of the receptor. Seragon has identified multiple SERDs that have pharmacokinetic profiles sufficient to drive a robust therapeutic response and result in degradation of the receptor and anti-tumor activity. The novel profile of these potent, orally bioavailable, nonsteroidal agents may result in greater efficacy and response rates in patients with hormone-refractory breast cancer compared to other drugs in development. Seragon’s most advanced leads induce tumor regressions in both tamoxifen sensitive and tamoxifen resistant tumor models in vivo. Based on these results and others, the company is currently advancing multiple, distinct lead SERD chemical scaffolds toward clinical development. Seragon’s SERDs are initially being developed for the treatment of women with late-stage, progressive metastatic disease.