Casma Therapeutics and Vipergen Enter Into Drug Discovery Agreement

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, December 1, 2020—Casma Therapeutics, Inc. and Vipergen ApS announced today the signing of a drug discovery agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Vipergen will apply its proprietary high-fidelity DNA-encoded library (DEL) technology platform to discover novel small-molecule drug leads against a broad range of undisclosed Casma discovery targets. Casma will retain exclusive rights to globally commercialize any products resulting from the collaboration. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

“Vipergen is a leader in DNA-encoded library technologies, and we are delighted to be working with them to develop novel chemistry for our programs.” said Jeff Saunders, PhD, SVP of Drug Discovery at Casma. “We look forward to drawing on Vipergen’s expertise as we create breakthrough products for patients by harnessing the power of the autophagy pathway.”

“We are pleased to be selected by Casma, a leading company harnessing the natural cellular process of autophagy to design new medicines that arrest or reverse the progression of multiple disorders,” said Nils Hansen, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Vipergen. “Our DNA-encoded library technology can introduce novel chemistry into Casma’s medicinal chemistry program that deliver high quality hits and leads for challenging protein targets that address important unmet medical needs. We look forward to working with Casma to create additional pathways for uncovering small-molecule product candidates.”

About Casma Therapeutics
Casma Therapeutics is harnessing the natural cellular process of autophagy to open vast new target areas for drug discovery and development. Casma has developed a novel targeted degradation platform that utilizes the autophagosome to degrade disease causing aggregates, dysfunctional organelles and other large and complex difficult to drug targets. In addition, Casma uses several other approaches to intervene at strategic points in the autophagy-lysosome system to improve the cellular process of enhancing membrane repair. By boosting autophagy, Casma expects to be able to arrest or reverse the progression of multiple disorders. Casma was launched in 2018 by Third Rock Ventures and is based in Cambridge, Mass. Additional investors include The Column Group, Eventide Asset Management and Schroder Adveq. For more information, please visit www.casmatx.com.

About Vipergen ApS
Vipergen is a world leading provider of small molecule drug discovery services based on DNAencoded library (DEL) technologies. Vipergen is finding tractable hits/leads for your pharmaceutical relevant targets, using three proprietary 2nd and 3rd generation DEL technologies. Vipergen is the first and only company capable of screening DELs inside a living cell. Vipergen is offering different business models, including simple Fee-For-Service. In 2015-20 >40 deals signed, including with top-5 pharma in both USA, EU and Japan. For further details about Vipergen and the YoctoReactor®/ Binder Trap Enrichment®/ cellular Binder Trap Enrichment® drug discovery technology platforms please visit www.vipergen.com.


Investor and Media Contact

Vipergen Contact:
Nils Hansen, PhD, Chief Executive Officer
Vipergen ApS
Email: nha@vipergen.com
Phone: +45 2523 6680

Casma Therapeutics Contact:
Courteney Backstrom
Casma Therapeutics, Inc.
Email: cbackstrom@casmatx.com
Phone: +1 857-777-4248