Nuvalent: Structure-based design to address selectivity, tumor resistance

After more than three years in stealth mode during which it subsisted on a $50 million series A round from Deerfield, Nuvalent is headed into the clinic with two targeted programs for non-small cell lung cancer.

Nuvalent Inc.’s emergence represents the latest evidence of Deerfield Management’s push to create start-ups and invest in earlier-stage companies, often based on academic discoveries. Although Nuvalent isn’t a traditional academic spin-out, the company arose from conversations between the firm’s Cam Wheeler and founder Matthew Shair, a Harvard professor of chemistry and chemical biology...