Mercator signs license agreement with MD Anderson Cancer Center and closes $2.0 million seed round

Mercator Therapeutics, the first biopharmaceutical company to use in vivo phage display technology systematically to develop novel cancer drugs, today announced the signing of a license agreement with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the closing of a $2.0 million seed round.

“Renata and Wadih are world leaders in the use of in vivo phage display. What they've accomplished is remarkable, and Mercator is well positioned to begin to translate their unique technology into much needed treatments for primary and metastatic cancers.”

The Patent and Technology License Agreement with MD Anderson provides Mercator a broad suite of intellectual property and rights to certain improvements to that intellectual property. The license covers multiple programs involving pairs of (a) internalizing receptors that are highly expressed on human tumors and (b) targeting peptides that have been demonstrated in vivo to bind to those receptors and induce internalization of both the peptide and the receptor. The most advanced of these programs has delivered a drug candidate that currently is in a Phase I clinical trial. Mercator has rights to certain additional peptide-receptor pairs discovered through on-going work.

Mercator's technology was discovered and developed by Dr. Wadih Arap, Dr. Renata Pasqualini, and others at MD Anderson. Drs. Arap and Pasqualini, who are co-founders of Mercator, pioneered the use of in vivo phage display to identify targeting peptides that are believed to selectively deliver tumor-killing payloads without damaging surrounding tissue. Dr. Roy Lobb, Chairman & CSO of Mercator, commented, "Renata and Wadih are world leaders in the use of in vivo phage display. What they've accomplished is remarkable, and Mercator is well positioned to begin to translate their unique technology into much needed treatments for primary and metastatic cancers."

The $2.0 million seed round closed promptly after the license signing. Mercator's investors were not disclosed. Proceeds from the seed round will be used to begin to develop Mercator's pipeline and to support the company's business development activities. "We greatly appreciate how quickly people familiar with Mercator's founders stepped up to fund Mercator's launch," said Chris Guiffre, Mercator's President & CEO. "Now that we have secured disruptive technology and ample funding, we will turn our attention to pre-clinical development and the many business development opportunities ahead of us. The products we develop in collaboration with our biopharma partners are expected to address serious unmet needs for safe and effective cancer treatments, and each of them is expected to have blockbuster potential."

Mercator is the third company founded by Dr. Lobb. He co-founded Albor Biologics in 2003 and Avila Therapeutics in 2006. Mark Leuchtenberger, co-founder of Albor and Mercator and a member of Mercator's Board of Directors, noted, "I have known Roy for more than 20 years, and during that time, I've learned that his judgment with respect to the commercial potential of novel science is impeccable. His perspective on the Arap-Pasqualini technology provides both founders and investors with ample validation and justified excitement about its potential to change the way we think about treating cancer."