Forbion Capital Partners. (10/10/18). "Press Release: Forbion Co-leads $54m Series A Financing in Newly Formed Gotham Therapeutics". Naarden & Munich.

	Organisation	FCF IV Fund (Forbion Capital Fund IV)
	Group	Forbion (Group)
	Organisation 2	Gotham Therapeutics Corporation
	Group	Gotham Therapeutics (Group)
	Product	small-molecule drug
	Product 2	venture capital
	Index term	Gotham Therapeutics–Forbion: investment, 201810 financing round Series A totalling $54m incl $15m from co-lead investor Forbion IV Fund
	Index term 2	Gotham Therapeutics–SEVERAL: investment, 201810 financing round Series A $54m co-led by Versant Ventures + Forbion + SR One
	Person	Reithinger, Holger (Forbion 201004– Managing Director Forbion Capital Partners Munich before GLSV Munich + 3i Germany)
	Person 2	Babiss, Lee E. (Gotham Therapeutics 201810 CEO before Roche+ PPD + Glaxo Wellcome)

> Gotham is developing a novel drug class targeting RNA-modifying proteins

> Forbion’s first investment from its newly launched Forbion IV fund

Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announces that it invested $15 million in the $54 million Series A financing in Gotham Therapeutics, a newly formed biotechnology company developing a novel drug class targeting RNA-modifying proteins.

Forbion co-led the financing with founding investor Versant Ventures. The investor syndicate also included SR One, Celgene and Alexandria Venture Investments. Gotham is part of New York’s rapidly growing biopharma community with a subsidiary in one of Europe’s leading life sciences clusters near Munich, Germany.

Gotham was founded based upon the ground-breaking work of its co-founder, Professor Samie Jaffrey, M.D. Ph.D., a pioneer in an exciting new field within RNA metabolism called epitranscriptomics. Dr. Jaffrey is a professor of pharmacology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. His work has shed light on the role of post-transcriptional mRNA modifications in health and disease. These modifications and their biological effects are driven by protein complexes commonly described and categorized as writers, erasers and readers of the epitranscriptomic code.

With its seed funding, Gotham built a platform to assess the impact of RNA-modifying proteins on disease biology and developed small molecules against priority targets. The Series A proceeds will allow Gotham to establish clinical proof of concept and to invest broadly in a pipeline of preclinical candidates that have potential to treat diseases intractable to classical approaches.

Commenting, Holger Reithinger, Ph.D., General Partner at Forbion said: “We are excited to invest in Gotham, one of the pioneers in the fast-emerging field of RNA metabolism, which could create a paradigm shift in both cancer therapy and other major diseases. Gotham represents the first investment by our recently announced Forbion IV fund. Our new fund aims to help build leading companies around exciting new science, proven teams or in-licensed assets.”

Dr. Lee Babiss, CEO of Gotham Therapeutics commented: “As we pursue several important targets, the information we glean will help us further validate and build our platform for increasingly broad applications. Our goal is to become the leader in drugging key proteins that modulate mRNA functionality, thereby impacting disease onset and progression.”
“While academic research and the pharmaceutical industry focused initially on modifications of DNA, a growing body of evidence indicates that mRNA modifications help determine to which degree genes are translated into proteins. RNA modifications and their associated protein complexes therefore represent an untapped frontier that could yield new therapeutic approaches”, added Dr. Samie Jaffrey, Professor of Pharmacology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Co-Founder and Scientific Advisory Board member of Gotham Therapeutics.

In connection with the financing, Dr. Holger Reithinger will join Dr. Carlo Rizzuto and Dr. Jill Carroll, Principal, SR One on Gotham’s Board of Directors. Jorge DiMartino M.D., Ph.D., Vice President, Translational Development Oncology at Celgene and Head of Celgene’s Epigenetics Thematic Center of Excellence has joined the board in an observer role.

ENDS

About Forbion

Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands and Germany. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the (bio-) pharmaceutical space. Forbion’s investment team has built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in over 50 companies. Forbion manages well over EUR 1 billion across ten funds. Forbion is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Besides financial objectives, Forbion selects investments that will positively affect health and well-being of patients. Its investors include the EIF, through its European Recovery Programme (ERP), LfA, Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI) facilities and AMUF facilities and the KFW through the ERP – Venture Capital Fondsfinanzierung facility. Forbion operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early stage funds focused on Benelux and Germany. For more information, please visit: www.forbion.com.

About Gotham Therapeutics

Gotham Therapeutics has assembled an exceptional team and network to establish a novel drug class targeting the epitranscriptomics machinery. By changing the activity of proteins that modify messenger RNA, we aim to develop new treatment options for patients suffering from cancers, auto-immune and neurodegenerative diseases. We are applying a 360-degree approach to small molecule drug design to build a pipeline based on the promise of this rapidly emerging biopharmaceutical field. For more information, please visit: www.gothamtx.com

Contacts

Forbion contact:

Holger Reithinger
General Partner
P: +49 172 252 9032
E: Holger.Reithinger@forbion.com

Media contact:

Instinctif Partners (on behalf of Forbion)
Ashley Tapp / Melanie Toyne-Sewell
P: +44 (0) 20 7457 2020
E: forbion@instinctif.com

Record changed: 2023-06-05