Ken Song knows how to step on the gas pedal.
His new company, called Candid Therapeutics, emerged from stealth on Monday morning with more than $370 million to its name and two clinical-stage T cell engagers, a class that’s successful in oncology and could have a future in the bustling autoimmune field, much like cell therapies.
The biotech exec launched the new startup less than a year after selling the late-stage radiopharma company RayzeBio to Bristol Myers Squibb for about $4.1 billion. Song took RayzeBio from Series A to IPO in three years and Nasdaq debut to M&A exit in about three months.
Shortly after the RayzeBio deal closed in February, Song set up Candid as a shell company and started a hunt for clinical-stage drugs in oncology, pain, autoimmune and other areas, exploring nearly 50 opportunities.
The emerging data on cell therapies in autoimmune diseases caught Song’s eye. Some cell therapy makers like Caribou Biosciences and Nkarta have either added autoimmune indications to their pipeline or shifted away from oncology, but Song felt there was another approach. T cell engagers could be easier for patients to take than cell therapies, and they also have a less complex manufacturing process and thus are easier to scale, he said.
“To me, it was fairly obvious that an antibody-based approach, like with a T cell engager, could be the right solution,” Song said in an interview.
He quickly lined up investors, who he said were willing to dish out even more than the $370 million that they finally landed on, and inked two acquisitions: Vignette Bio, and TRC 2004. Vignette came from Foresite Labs, and the somewhat stealth-stage TRC 2004 derives from Third Rock Ventures and Two River, which is run by Kite Pharma founder Arie Belldegrun.
Vignette said last week it would pay $60 million upfront for a BCMAxCD3 bispecific from EpimAb Biotherapeutics, and it could eventually spend another $575 million in biobucks. And TRC 2004 broke cover last month with a “double-digit million” upfront, plus $443 million in milestones, for a CD20xCD3 bispecific antibody from Genor Biopharma.
Candid also has a discovery effort looking at two new ideas for next-generation T cell engagers, Song said.
Repurposing T cell engagers
Candid said its two T cell engager antibodies — renamed CND106 and CND261 — have clinical data in more than 130 patients in various cancers, but are now being repositioned for autoimmune diseases. Amgen opened the field, and other drugmakers are following up with T cell engagers of their own, mostly for cancers.
The company plans to put the two antibodies in the clinic early next year, Song said. Candid has already picked a set of lead indications, which it is not yet disclosing. The startup is considering testing them in similar, or identical, indications, and will run the trials relatively in parallel.
“It’s really unclear, where we sit today, as to what the right T cell target is and what’s going to provide the best therapeutic index,” Song said. “We want to be data-driven, and we’re OK pitting both of our molecules against each other in the same indication because it’s about finding what is going to be the best drug for a given disease.”
Song thinks Candid’s T cell engagers can “go above and beyond the clinical and commercial success of Humira and Rituxan.”
He acknowledged it’s a bold claim. AbbVie’s Humira was the best-selling drug of all time.
“When you look at the data that is emerging with T cell depletion, by targeting different T cell antigens, you’re seeing remissions happening in patients who are highly refractory to treatment,” Song said. “That’s what really attracted me toward coming into this sector … The efficacy is unquestionable and it’s profound, transformative efficacy that we’re observing.”
Who’s who of investors
Candid has a long list of blue-chip names, including Venrock, Fairmount Funds, TCGX, venBio Partners, Samsara BioCapital and more than a dozen others. The $370 million includes funding that investors put into Vignette and TRC 2004, but “the bulk” of it is new money patched together by Candid, according to Song.
A “lion’s share” is still available after factoring in the upfront payments for the licensing deals, which included “some equity,” the CEO said. He expects the financing to last “several years.”
Alongside Song in the C-suite is RayzeBio CFO Arvind Kush; chief medical and scientific officer Timothy Lu, who led IL-17 autoimmune drug development at Eli Lilly’s DICE Therapeutics; and CTO Bernie Huyghe, who recently led late-stage trials of antibodies at Viridian Therapeutics. Candid has about 18 employees so far.