Cambridge-based X4 Pharmaceuticals is run by one of Termeer’s former employees at Genzyme, Paula Ragan,
who worked in various business development roles there from 2007 to
2012. While the Series A investment the company is announcing today (a
round led by Cormorant Asset Management) has been known for a few months
now, Ragan said in an interview that the company is about to become
more high-profile
“This is really our coming out party,” she said. “We’ve been around, building momentum for the past year-plus.”
By the end of
March, Ragan plans to begin an initial trial of a drug that inhibits
production of a certain protein called CXCR4. Ragan explains that the
protein acts as a beacon to attract cells to surround a tumor,
effectively hiring the tumor from the body’s T cells that would
otherwise destroy them. By blocking CXCR4, the drug can eliminates one
way that solid cancers try and evade detection.
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