DEM BioPharma: exploring ‘don’t eat me’ white space beyond CD47
Backed with $70M, the start-up unites Trillium alumni with academics to discover more phagocytosis targets for cancer
DEM BioPharma, which debuted Thursday with $70 million, is using CRISPR screens to discover new targets that drive myeloid cells to eat cancer. It’s the latest sign that early movers in the “don’t eat me” space are seeing more opportunities for that mechanism beyond CD47 and its receptor SIRPA.
With former Trillium Therapeutics Inc. CEO Jan Skvarka as executive chairman and former Trillium CSO Robert Uger as its chief scientific advisor, DEM BioPharma Inc. gains the perspective of a company that acquirer Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) believed had best-in-class assets against CD47, the first “don’t eat me” target, valuing the biotech at $2.3 billion. The new company’s mission is to develop more therapies that activate phagocytosis of cancer cells by the innate immune system...