On February 25, 2021, Cullgen Inc., a leading biotechnology company developing small molecule therapeutics based on its proprietary uSMITE™ platform of targeted protein degradation technology, announced that it has closed a $50 million Series B financing (assuming exercise of warrant).

In addition to receiving funding from existing Cullgen investors, five new prominent international venture capital firms also participated in the financing, including the lead investor, 3E Bioventures Capital, as well as Heights Capital Management (an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group), Octagon Capital, MSA Capital, and South China Venture Capital.

The financing will support the development of Cullgen’s technology platform and internal pipeline of targeted protein degraders in oncology and other diseases.

"There was overwhelming interest from the investment community to participate in this round of funding”, said Dr. Ying Luo, chairman of Cullgen. “We plan to file an IND later this year for our most advanced program, CG001419, which is a TRK protein degrader for cancer and other disease applications. We plan to utilize the new capital to help advance this program into human clinical studies, as well as advance our other pipeline products closer to human clinical studies. In addition, we believe that the future of targeted protein degradation lies in the use of novel E3 ligands. The new funding will allow us to continue discovering and optimizing our exciting pipeline of novel E3 ligands."

A Wilson Sonsini team including Michael Hostetler and Uale Taotafa, and Peter Hecker served as patent counsel to Cullgen in the transaction.

For more information, please see Cullgen’s press release.