Biotech

Dive Brief: Halda Therapeutics, a Connecticut-based biotechnology startup co-founded by Yale University cancer researcher and serial entrepreneur Craig Crews, ...

“We’re in a good place and are really just focusing on progressing our programs.” The company closed its last round, a $51 million Series B, in late 2021. That candidate targets the androgen receptor protein, which is overexpressed in prostate tumors, as well as an unspecified target involved in transcription. Crews and Kayser-Bricker claim their approach can sidestep a mechanism by which tumors develop drug resistance, which is one reason they’re starting with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Halda similarly uses a “gluing” mechanism to target cancer. Halda says its drug candidates are designed to hold two proteins in place until a reaction occurs that kills the cancer cell, an approach that could address some limitations of targeted cancer treatments. But instead of tagging and trashing a problematic protein, the company aims to “smother” proteins essential to a cancer cell’s survival, Crews said. The company is describing one example, a preclinical prostate cancer drug, at a medical meeting later this week. [owned by Amgen](https://investors.amgen.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amgen-acquire-onyx-pharmaceuticals-125-share-cash), was just the start for Crews. Several, including [Arvinas](https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/Pfizer-arvinas-protein-deal-research/514072/), have partnered with larger pharmaceutical companies. With his labmates at Yale, Crews has spent decades researching ways to repurpose the cell’s so-called garbage disposal system against cancer. - Halda is backed with $76 million from investors, including Canaan Partners and Access Biotechnology, and has two medicines in early development for solid tumors.