BOSTON, Oct. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FogPharma today announced that Barbara Weber, M.D., will join its board of directors. Dr. Weber is president and CEO of Tango Therapeutics and venture partner at Third Rock Ventures. She has served as a scientific and medical advisor to FogPharma since its founding. As a newly appointed director she will join: Dr. Gregory Verdine, chairman, president and CEO of FogPharma; Dr. Leon Chen, chief executive officer, 6 Dimensions Capital; Dr. Krishna Yeshwant, general partner, GV; and Dr. Rick Klausner, founder and director, Juno Therapeutics, GRAIL and Mindstrong.

"I am thrilled to join the board of directors at FogPharma. As a physician dedicated to the eradication of cancer, I have always found it frustrating that many important cancer drivers are beyond the grasp of existing drug modalities. The consequences of this technological shortfall leave many patients without effective treatments. Cell-penetrating miniproteins, the new drug modality that is being pioneered by Greg Verdine and the stellar team at FogPharma, offers real promise to treat cancers that are refractory to current treatments as well as many other diseases for which there is no effective treatment. I am excited to bring my strategic perspective on science, medicine and company-building to FogPharma, and join a board of highly-regarded industry leaders," said Dr. Weber.

Dr. Weber joined Third Rock Ventures in 2015 to focus on oncology research and development opportunities throughout the portfolio. In that role she served as interim Chief Medical Officer for Neon Therapeutics through 2017, and played a leadership role in the creation of Relay Therapeutics, launched in 2016. While at Third Rock, Dr. Weber conceived of and founded Tango Therapeutics, a company that leverages advanced cancer genetics to devise novel therapeutics that exploit unique, patient-specific cancer susceptibilities, and in 2017 she completed a $55M Series A financing and became full-time CEO of Tango. Today Dr. Weber leads a team at Tango of more than 40 cancer geneticists and drug developers.

FogPharma was co-founded in 2015 by renowned scientist-entrepreneur Dr. Gregory Verdine, whose Harvard lab invented cell-penetrating miniproteins and who coined the term "drugging the undruggable" to describe his life's mission. FogPharma's research and development strategy is unique in that it pairs a broadly-enabling new drug class, designed to access the cell interior, with a massively parallelized engine to discover – rapidly and on-demand – drugs that engage the most intractable of disease targets. FogPharma's drug discovery engine has been configured to deliver multiple new medicines in rapid succession, with clinical entry for the first product, a first-in-class beta-catenin antagonist, by the end of 2019, followed by a steady stream of first-in-class clinical product candidates addressing other intractable targets.

While FogPharma's approach has many therapeutic applications, the company's early focus is on drugging the major, intractable drivers of cancer and on pharmacological management of the immune response.

"Barb's tremendous breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, as a basic scientist, clinician, R&D leader, and chief executive make her an incredible asset to FogPharma as we work diligently to bring forward a new class of medicines with the potential to drug the most intractable drivers of cancer," said Dr. Verdine, chairman, president and CEO, FogPharma. "We are focused on developing a powerful, on-demand drug delivery platform that will allow us to combine the cell-penetrating ability of small molecules with the broad, target power of biologics. We are supremely confident that Barb's strategic leadership will help us achieve our mission of bringing life to years and years to life for cancer patients in dire need of radically new and effective treatment options."

In May 2018, FogPharma announced the close of a $66 million Series B financing, bringing the company's total funding to $77 million. Proceeds from the Series B are being used to advance the company's first-in-class beta-catenin inhibitor (iCat) program into Phase 2 development for cancer indications involving Wnt pathway activation. The financing is also being used to advance clinical development of a first-in-class Cbl-b inhibitor program and a third, undisclosed program through IND-enabling studies.

For more information on FogPharma, please visit www.fogpharma.com.   

About FogPharma
FogPharma was born from the scientific and entrepreneurial vision of founder Dr. Gregory Verdine, a pioneer in the discovery and development of new drug classes that "drug the undruggable." FogPharma's cell-penetrating miniproteins are a broad new class of medicines that can drug targets beyond the reach of conventional therapeutics. Together with world-leading experts and collaborators in translational medicine, the FogPharma team is building a drug discovery platform to develop fundamentally new treatments for cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

Co-founded in 2015 by academic scientist, biotech entrepreneur, investor, and chief executive Dr. Verdine, FogPharma is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. and has raised $77 million in funding as of May 2018. For more information on FogPharma please visit www.fogpharma.com.

SOURCE FogPharma

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