WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Frequency Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on harnessing the body’s innate biology to repair or reverse damage caused by a broad range of degenerative diseases, today announced the closing of a $62.0 million Series C financing. Frequency will use the proceeds to support the clinical development of FX-322, a regenerative therapeutic for the treatment of sensorineural hearing loss that is moving into a Phase 2a study, and to advance discovery programs in other therapeutic areas using its proprietary Progenitor Cell Activation (PCA) platform.
The financing was led by Perceptive Advisors and a syndicate that includes new investors Deerfield Management, RTW Investments and Mizuho Securities Principal Investment, as well as existing investors Polaris Founders Capital, Taiwania Capital Management, Axil Capital, and CoBro Ventures. With the closing of the Series C, Frequency will have raised a total of $147 million in equity financings.
Frequency also recently announced a collaboration agreement with Astellas Pharma Inc. for the global development and ex-US commercialization of FX-322, which included an $80 million upfront payment and $545 million in potential milestone payments.
“This financing comes at an important time for Frequency as we prepare to advance our lead clinical candidate, FX-322, into a Phase 2a study of sensorineural hearing loss, a condition for which there are no approved therapies,” said David Lucchino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Frequency. “This significant support from investors, coupled with the funds from our recent license and collaboration agreement, will enable us to continue to move FX-322 through clinical development and to explore the potential of our PCA platform in other therapeutic categories where we believe progenitor cell activation can lead to new treatments for degenerative diseases.”
“We are focused on working with life sciences companies that are applying transformative approaches to developing medicines in disease areas that are underserved by current therapies,” said Joseph Edelman, Chief Executive Officer, Perceptive Advisors. “We were impressed by the vision of Frequency’s leadership, the elegance and the underlying science of their platform, and the team’s commitment to developing treatments for hearing loss and other areas where there is clear patient need.”
“Frequency is working to reduce the complexity of regenerative medicine by leveraging innate biology to create localized healing,” said Marc Cohen, Frequency’s Executive Chairman. “We are excited by the potential in the company’s PCA platform to produce a new class of medicines and by the new and existing investors who continue to support our efforts to develop transformative therapies for patients.”
About Progenitor Cell Activation
Frequency is pioneering a new class of small-molecule therapeutics designed to activate progenitor cells already present within the body to create healthy functional tissues and organs. This approach may bypass the challenges presented by stem cell therapies by temporarily reactivating progenitor cells already located at the tissue target site and pre-programmed to make specific cell types. Potential applications of its PCA platform include, but are not limited to, diseases of the muscle, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and bone.
About Frequency Therapeutics
Frequency Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on harnessing the body’s innate biology to repair or reverse damage caused by a broad range of degenerative diseases. Our approach, called Progenitor Cell Activation (PCA) uses combinations of small molecule drugs to activate progenitor cells within the body to create functional tissue. Through the transitory activation of these cells, Frequency aims to develop therapies that can enable disease modification without the complexity of genetic engineering. Frequency’s lead program, FX-322, is a potential first-in-class therapeutic candidate targeting hearing restoration. For more information, visit www.frequencytx.com and follow us on Twitter @Frequencytx.
