Lampalizumab

Some biotechs stand out because of their novel scientific promise. Others gain a prominent profile because of the clear commitment of savvy investors with a record of picking the best startup bets. And then you have standouts that boast of deep experience in the management group. At Third Arc Bio, the science isn’t particularly novel. But the team running the company has levels of experience rarely seen in the freshman class of companies. And the investors clearly believe these players can leverage that know-how to make their mark with a new generation of therapies for solid tumors — while also pushing into the flip side of autoimmune disease. “The concept is fairly straightforward,” CEO Peter Lebowitz said. “The execution of that concept is complex.” In order to get T cells activated to kill, you need two signals, he explains. Signal one, the T cell receptor, is engaged by CD3. In hematological malignancies, CD3 works well alone because the malignancies have a costimulatory signal built in. But solid tumors require another signal. So for their lead program, now in Phase 1, Third Arc selected CD28 to be the second signal that will let them tackle solid tumors. Lebowitz, who led Johnson & Johnson’s oncology R&D through a groundbreaking alliance with China’s Legend on the CAR-T drug Carvykti, relied on his experience to reach the conclusion that Third Arc is a solid bet. He also trusts the expertise of chief scientific officer and founder Sanjaya Singh, who adds another 25-plus years on the experience side. That wide-ranging background includes key roles in inventing Skyrizi as well as lampalizumab and other drugs, across a career at J&J and Boehringer Ingelheim. They have both been there and done that. Then there’s Joe Erhardt and Debi Watson, two more J&J vets running clinical development and business ops. The leadership team in a staff of 37 is augmented by dozens more working at a contract operation in India, where Singh got his PhD at Banaras Hindu University before completing his postdoc at MD Anderson Cancer Center. A lot of people know how to make a good molecule, Singh said. But it’s the execution — finding the best in a mix of factors — that separates the big new drugs from the also-rans. And that’s where he believes the Third Arc team will come out ahead. The first target up is Claudin-6. “If you choose targets carefully where you don’t have overlap of expression in the tissue and having a good second signal that is controlled, you can also increase the specificity on the target,” Singh said. And that translates to greater potency and a new generation of more effective drugs. Launched three years ago, Third Arc is betting that it can efficiently line up the kind of human data that keeps people interested in their future. In oncology, it’s possible to garner that kind of attention in an early stage, as you map out just how long it would take to get an approval — either full or accelerated. And despite the headlines, Lebowitz said, he’s so far seen little disruption at the FDA that would interfere with that plan. Third Arc got a $165 million launch round early this year, a mega-raise led by Vida Ventures, which is designed to push ahead to 2027 and several clinical programs. That’s solid funding, but not the same kind of resources that a multinational like J&J can bring to the table. “The scale is different,” Lebowitz said, “but the issues are very similar.” They are: When Singh set out to create the company in 2022, he had Omega Funds — where he’s a venture partner — in his corner and a support team he could rely on in India that allowed him to go it alone as the sole full-timer for a few months. And while remaining small, Third Arc will continue to employ a global strategy as it jockeys drugs into the clinic. “I’ve always looked at drug development as a global thing,” Lebowitz said. And if you have the right kind of experience, that can be just as important in a small organization as it is in a large one.