A little more than a year after securing $50 million in a Series A financing round, Quench Bio, an Atlas Venture company, is shutting down operations after failing to meet its therapeutic goals.
A little more than a year after securing $50 million in a Series A financing round, Cambridge, Mass.-based Quench Bio, an Atlas Venture company, is shutting down operations after failing to meet its therapeutic goals.
The company announced its decision Tuesday in a series of posts on Twitter. In what Quench Bio called a “successful failure,” the company said its drug target proved undruggable to its efforts.
Quench was developing an approach to inhibit Gasdermin D, which was believed to be a key target at the core of multiple inflammatory cell death pathways, including pyroptosis and NETosis. When pyroptosis or NETosis pathways are activated, gasdermin is processed and forms lytic pores on the cell membrane, allowing release of inflammatory cytokines, alarmins, DNA and NETs. Pyroptosis and NETosis are associated with numerous inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), as well as other diseases.
Despite the company’s best efforts, it was unable to achieve its goal. Quench said it used multiple, orthogonal technologies and “threw the full tool box” at its target. Unfortunately for the company, those efforts were not enough.
“We did not identify potent, selective chemical series to progress – which was our goal by Q1 2021,” the company said in one of its posts. “We recommended to wind down and return capital to investors.” The company did not share how much capital would be returned. Investors in the Series A included Atlas Ventures, RA Capital Management, AbbVie Ventures and Arix Biosciences.
Quench noted that its team took a shot at what it believed was a promising opportunity to “pursue novel targets with potential to be transformative to patients.” In the same breath, the company said it was important to be able to step back, and make the disciplined decision to know when enough was enough.
“We advanced the understanding of gasdermin. We’ll share our learning to someday benefit the patients we all serve,” the company said. It added it plans to publish key findings from its research, including high-resolution crystal structures and co-crystals.
While the company will publish its findings, Quench Bio said it did not want its efforts to stop with them. The company said it auctioned off its research data to another, as yet-unnamed company, that it hopes will advance the research and develop beneficial therapies for patients.
The proceeds from the auction will be donated to Life Sciences Cares Boston, an organization that provides volunteer opportunities for life sciences employees to combat poverty. Quench did not disclose the amount raised through the auction, but said the amount was higher than expected.
“Quench Bio may not have discovered the new medicine we hoped, but it was [a] valiant effort and a “successful failure” in the biotech business,” Quench said.
