There are many different things that set human beings apart, but if we are being honest, none do the job quite like our tendency to grow on a consistent basis. You see, when someone can grow under each and every situation, they eventually become eligible to hit upon some huge milestones along the way. This has been notably proven by whatever we have achieved so far, with one very important piece of testimony coming from an idea called technology. Technology’s emergence has been pivotal for reasons that go well beyond its skill-set. To contextualize the statement, we must acknowledge the influence of how those skills were used to impact an entire spectrum, including our very own healthcare sector. In fact, technology’s foray into healthcare couldn’t have come at a better time, considering the manner in which the latter was struggling against an outdated structure. Nevertheless, even after revolutionizing the sector from top to bottom, this medtech linkup will continue to make all the right noises. The same dynamic was put on full display by a recent funding.
IDRx, a Massachusetts-based biotech startup, has successfully secured over $122 million in Series A financing. Led by Andreessen Horowitz and Casdin Capital, the round saw further participation coming from the likes of Nextech Invest and Forge Life Science Partners. According to certain reports, IDRx will use the newly-raised cash to support drug combinations for treating cancer. Mind you, these combinations are already present around cancer treatments under some capacity, but given the potential toxic effects associated with them, they are only reserved for advance cancers that don’t have many treatment options. IDRx wants to bring them to the early stage as well. Talk about how the company is going to do so, it will design an amalgamation where the first drug will target those primary mutations that enable a cancer to escape. If everything goes well, this drug should be able to boast an expansive therapeutic window, which will allow it to carry a wide dose range. As for the second drug, it will employ specialized molecules to stop the resistance mutations that the first drug couldn’t address. While the combination is restricted to house just two drugs for now, IDRx plans on adding more to it moving forward.
“IDRx’s approach offers the opportunity to develop more effective cancer medicines for patients through intentionally built treatment combinations, and we are starting with gastrointestinal stromal tumor, where tumor biology is well known but, at the same time, there remains a high unmet medical need,” said Ben Auspitz, CEO of IDRx.
At the moment, IDRx is separately testing IDRX-42 and IDRX-73 with an intention of combining them in the future. However, beyond these drugs, which were licensed from somewhere else, the company also plans to develop its own therapeutic answers for the purpose in question.
