On September 22, 2021, Hexagon Bio, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery of medicines encoded in the global metagenome, announced that it has raised $61 million to fuel the continued development of its platform to design and develop new therapeutics mined from microbial genomes. Nextech Invest led the financing, with participation from new investors SoftBank Vision Fund 2* and Casdin Capital, as well as existing investors The Column Group, 8VC, and Two Sigma Ventures. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Hexagon Bio in IP matters related to the transaction.

“Microbial genomes are an incredibly rich source of diverse, potent and drug-like compounds that, as a result of millions of years of evolution, provide elegant solutions to human therapeutic targets that have eluded traditional screening approaches. To date, the discovery of these small molecules has been limited to a tiny fraction of the earth’s microbes and hampered by a lack of mechanistic understanding of the intended drug targets,” said Maureen Hillenmeyer, Ph.D., Hexagon’s co-founder and CEO. “Hexagon exists to overcome these challenges and unearth new medicines to combat human disease. We are excited to embark on the next phase of growth to discover and develop unique and potent therapeutic compounds for a broad spectrum of intractable diseases.”

Proceeds from the financing will enable the company to further expand its genomics database and accelerate its drug discovery efforts with an initial focus on high-value anti-infective and oncology targets.

The Wilson Sonsini team that advised Hexagon Bio in IP matters related to the transaction include Maya Skubatch, Rex Watkins, and Uale Taotafa.