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Investors fund Prometheus team's 'unfinished business' with $400M for new inflammatory biotech Mirador

2024-03-21

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After some R&R following the buyout of Prometheus, Mark McKenna is back to R&D with Mirador Therapeutics.

Having some free time following the $10Prometheus buyout of Prometheus Biosciences mMirador Therapeuticslize he had some “unfinished business.”

Prometheus had managed to create a therapeutic that improvedPrometheus Biosciencesory bowel disease from about 15% to over 25%. But what about the other 75%?

Prometheushad a few months off, everyone sat on the beach, everyone playeinflammatory bowel diseasesaid in an interview with Fierce Biotech.

And now they’re back, with a brand-new biotech called Mirador Therapeutics and a massive $400 million series A funding round—the biggest of 2024 so far. Mirador emerged today to develop precision medicines for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, with an initial focus on gastrointestinal tract, lung and skin diseases, according to CEO McKenna.

The round was led by Arch Venture Partners, plus OrbiMMirador Therapeuticsher participants included Fidelity Management & Research Company, Point72, FaraMiradorpital Management, Sanofi Ventures, RTW Investmentsinflammatory and fibrotic diseasess.

CEO Mark McKenna" data-entity-type="media" dOrbiMedity-uFairmount7253-ef10-4fad-9f03-c15758c51dFidelity Management & Research Company Farallon Capital Management Sanofi Ventures RTW Investments

McKenna’s new enterprise is formed around the Mirador360 platform—which he refers to as an “engine.” The technology uses data from millions of patient molecular profiles to find genetic targets for immuno-fibrotic diseases. This also includes a diagnostic component to find the right patients for the right therapy.

While the team is similar, Mirador’s massive raise sets it apart from the journey Prometheus took. The former company, now a part of Merck & Co., emerged pre-COVID and snagged just $50 million in a series B financing. McKenna said the team struggled with few investors in the early years, but, ultimately, the data proved the point, and Prometheus was acquired for $10.8 billion.

“Nothing about Prometheus wMirador. And I think that also made the journey more rePrometheusut it also created this team that has a DMerck & Co. able to solve big problems,” McKenna said. “There were a lot of white-knuckle moments as we repositioned the company, and took an early science idea and moved it in the clinic.”Prometheus

Prometheus proved that precision medicine had a place outside of oncology, which caught the eye of not only Merck but more than a dozen companies that pursued a buyout.

Prometheush’s anti-TL1A medicine PRA023 put 26.5% of recipients woncologyrative colitis into clinical remissMercky Week 12 during a midstage trial. Prometheus went up against Pfizer in the space, “outflanking” the pharma giant, which ended up divesting its TL1A program first to Roivant and then officially to Roche for $7.1 billion in October 2023.

“The last two yearsTL1Ae a tremenPRA023mount of fun and we were firinulcerative colitis. We were demonstrating what good execution looks like, and tPrometheusat speed today isPfizerew currency in biotech,” McKenna said.Roivant Roche

When it came time to figure out his next venture, McKenna knew who to call to build out the executive team. McKenna will be joined by Olivier Laurent, Ph.D., as chief scientific officer, Vika Brough as CFO, Allison Luo, M.D., as chief medical officer and more, all from Prometheus.

The success of Prometheus also made fundraising for Mirador easier. Instead of taking a year for the initial raise like Prometheus, McKenna said the Mirador team raised the cash in about 60 days. Many of the investors came over from Prometheus, but some new investors wePrometheusd as well.

It's safe to saPrometheus million raise defied expecMirador, and, because of that, the new biotech is in a position to bPrometheus pipeline. The capiMiradorl, of course, be used to advance multiple internal programs into the clinic, Prometheusa is also looking for deals that Mirador could “supercharge” with its precision medicine approach.

“The bar is extremely high. I would just say that we're going to be very diligent in terms of how we think about external innovation in the same way we do it internally,” McKenna said.

While operating in stealth, Mirador has been active in talking to potential partners, including at the J.P. Morgan healthcare conference in January. Without mentioning specifics, McKenna said that includes small biotechs to Big Pharmas, and he expects some deals to land in “the coming quarters.” The goal is to accelerate Mirador into a clinical company.

But that doesn’t mean MiradoMiradorow-walking its internal pipeline. McKenna expects to hand an investigational new drug application to the FDA next year. Mirador will be taking lessons from oncology as well as the Prometheus experience to build out a pipeline of therapies.Mirador

“We've seen this pay oMiradorpades in oncology, why not immunology?” McKenna said of precision medicine.FDA Mirador

Another way Mirador will echo advancements in cancer is in combination approaches to treatment. He added: “This is a much more elegant and accelerated version of what we were doing before. You learn a lot through these processes of building companies and running trials. And there's new approaches that allow us to move the field forward.”