Nested Therapeutics launches with $125M, bets on hunting new drug targets by design

Nested Therapeutics runs a drug discovery platform combining computational engineering and biology to design small-molecule cancer drugs against targets other companies can't reach.

A directed, computational search for undruggable cancer targets can design working molecules where trial-and-error discovery keeps falling short.

$125M total financing, including a $90M Series A led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management with Foresite Capital, Cowen Healthcare Investments and Avidity Partners.

Nested Therapeutics, based in Massachusetts, built a drug discovery platform using computational engineering, biology and other life-science disciplines to identify novel cancer targets and design small molecules against them, rather than relying on targets discovered by chance in academic research.

The company closed a $90M Series A led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with Foresite Capital, Cowen Healthcare Investments and Avidity Partners, and launched from stealth on Thursday 2022-10-06 with $125M in total financing. CTO and co-founder Klaus Hoeflich said the approach 'opens doors to design novel small molecules for previously known targets with well-understood biology and to target what has been previously undruggable.'

The pharma industry has been reusing a small set of 'tired' drug targets that keep failing in trials.

Over $1.6 billion had already gone into drug discovery startups in 2022, showing investor appetite for a differentiated technical approach.

A directed computational search, rather than opportunistic academic discovery, promises more previously undruggable targets.

Backing from Goldman Sachs Asset Management and repeat health-focused investors signaled institutional confidence in the platform.

In a field short on new drug targets, systematically searching for the undruggable ones can be a bigger edge than another therapy for an already-crowded target.

As of 2022-10-06, Nested had just emerged from stealth with $125M in total financing and was using the capital to advance its computational target-discovery platform; no clinical or trial results had been reported yet.