Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners has scored an exit having invested at least twice in cancer and fibrosis therapy developer Forbius.
Pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has paid an undisclosed sum to acquire Forbius, a US-based cancer and fibrosis drug developer backed by multi-university commercialisation firm Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP).
The deal will close in the fourth quarter of 2020 once customary closing conditions have been met. The deal consists of an upfront and milestone-dependent payments.
Forbius has assembled a clinical and preclinical-stage portfolio of drug candidates for cancer and fibrosis – a disease in which connective tissue grown in place of normal organ tissue leads to permanent scarring.
Forbius’s approach focuses on inhibiting two protein variants – TGF-beta 1 and 3 – believed to invigorate the patient’s immune response while also controlling environmental factors permissive of tumour growth.
The company’s most advanced candidate, Avid200, has completed phase 1a clinical trials as a potential cancer immunotherapy and fibrosis drug, although BMS plans to initially target…
