Endeavor BioMedicines has raised $132.5 million in a Series C round designed to advance its two experimental medicines deeper into clinical testing, the San Diego company announced Wednesday.

圣地亚哥奋进生物医药公司周三宣布，奋进生物医药公司在C轮融资中筹集了1.325亿美元，旨在将其两种实验药物深入临床试验。

The round was led by AyurMaya, an affiliate of investment firm Matrix Capital Management. Originally, the company’s financing target was between $75 million and $100 million, according to CEO John Hood. But Endeavor upped its expectations after reaching out to investors late last year.

本轮谈判由投资公司矩阵资本管理（Matrix Capital Management）的子公司AyurMaya牵头。根据首席执行官约翰·胡德（JohnHood）的说法，该公司最初的融资目标是7500万至一亿美元。但在去年年底与投资者接触后，奋进提高了预期。

Hood and his team found strong interest in a biotech with two drugs in early- and mid-stage testing, suggestive of the current investment climate favoring more mature drug startups. The company revealed positive Phase 2 study results in January while putting its funding together.

胡德和他的团队发现，在早期和中期测试中，对一种含有两种药物的生物技术产生了浓厚的兴趣，这表明目前的投资环境有利于更成熟的药物初创公司。该公司在1月份公布了积极的第二阶段研究结果，同时筹集了资金。

“We got the luxury of raising on really good clinical data for a disease with high unmet need,” Hood told BioPharma Dive, in an interview.

胡德在接受BioPharma Dive采访时说：“我们有幸获得了一种未满足需求的疾病的良好临床数据。”

With Endeavor, Hood is following a similar strategy as the last biotech he founded, Impact Biosciences. He formed that company around a myelofibrosis drug that was licensed from Sanofi. Impact’s progress eventually drew the interest of Celgene, which acquired the company for $7 billion in 2018. The drug, Inrebic, was approved a year later and is now sold by Bristol Myers Squibb..

通过奋进，胡德正在遵循与他创立的最后一家生物技术公司Impact Biosciences类似的策略。他围绕一种从赛诺菲获得许可的骨髓纤维化药物成立了这家公司。Impact的进展最终引起了Celgene的兴趣，Celgene于2018年以70亿美元收购了该公司。这种名为Inrebic的药物一年后获得批准，现在由百时美施贵宝公司销售。

Endeavor, which launched in 2021, is also developing medicines that originated elsewhere. Its lead program, known as ENV-101, was first discovered by Eli Lilly and changed hands multiple times before arriving at Endeavor. Its second prospect, ENV-501, was licensed last year from Singapore-based startup Hummingbird Bioscience.

Endeavor于2021年推出，它也在开发源自其他地方的药物。它的主导项目ENV-101是礼来公司（EliLilly）首次发现的，在到达Endeavor之前曾多次易手。它的第二个潜在客户ENV-501去年获得了新加坡初创公司蜂鸟生物科学公司的许可。

(A third, that’s no longer in development, was acquired from a pair of academic institutions.).

（第三个已不再开发，是从一对学术机构收购的。）

The two drugs have little in common: ENV-101 is being developed for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, while ENV-501 is a cancer medicine. But Hood views both as potential advances in the diseases they’re targeting. “I'm not going to do this, and my investors aren't interested in doing this, just to have a 'me-too,' or an incremental drug,” he said..

这两种药物几乎没有共同之处：ENV-101正在开发用于特发性肺纤维化，而ENV-501是一种癌症药物。但胡德认为这两者都是他们针对的疾病的潜在进展。他说：“我不打算这样做，我的投资者也不想这样做，只是为了拥有一种‘我也是’，或者一种增量药物。”

ENV-101, once known as taladegib, blocks a cellular pathway dubbed “hedgehog” that plays an important role in wound healing as well as tumor progression. As with other so-called hedgehog inhibitors, such as Roche’s Erivedge and Novartis’ Odomzo, it was initially developed for a type of skin cancer. But Endeavor has been exploring its use in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare disease that causes scarring to build up in the lungs..

ENV-101曾被称为taladegib，阻断了一种被称为“刺猬”的细胞通路，该通路在伤口愈合和肿瘤进展中起着重要作用。与其他所谓的刺猬抑制剂一样，如罗氏的Erivedge和诺华的Odomzo，它最初是针对一种皮肤癌开发的。但奋进号一直在探索其在特发性肺纤维化中的应用，这是一种罕见的疾病，会导致肺部瘢痕形成。

Preliminary Phase 2 study results suggested the drug may improve on standard therapies that can only slow the decline of lung function. The company will use the new funds to test that theory further. It’s planning a Phase 2b study in IPF, as well as progressive pulmonary fibrosis, later this year.

初步的2期研究结果表明，该药物可能会改善只能减缓肺功能下降的标准疗法。该公司将利用新资金进一步验证这一理论。它计划在今年晚些时候对IPF和进行性肺纤维化进行2b期研究。

ENV-501, meanwhile, is a type of targeted cancer medicine known as an antibody-drug conjugate, or ADC, which fuses an antibody to a tumor-killing toxin. Endeavor is testing it against cancers expressing the protein HER3.

同时，ENV-501是一种靶向癌症药物，称为抗体-药物偶联物或ADC，它将抗体与杀肿瘤毒素融合。Endeavor正在针对表达HER3蛋白的癌症进行测试。

ENV-501 trails more advanced HER3-targeting ADCs, most notably a therapy from AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo that’s under regulatory review. But it claims ENV-501 may be safer and more potent because of certain features, such as a particular “linker” molecule meant to more precisely deliver the drug to tumors, according to Hood..

ENV-501追踪更先进的靶向HER3的ADC，最值得注意的是阿斯利康和第一三共的一种疗法，该疗法正在接受监管审查。但它声称ENV-501可能更安全，更有效，因为它具有某些特征，例如一种特殊的“接头”分子，可以更精确地将药物传递给肿瘤。

Endeavor plans to start an early-stage trial in solid tumors this year.

奋进计划今年开始实体瘤的早期试验。