Fore scores $75M Series D, tees up new leadership with ex-Elevation Oncology CEO

Fore Biotherapeutics has reeled in a $75 million Series D, and its CEO Matthew Ros is walking off the course for “other professional pursuits,” the Philadelphia drug developer said Wednesday morning.

Originally an Israeli diagnostics company known as Novellus, Fore made the transition to pharmaceuticals a few years ago, driven in part by its licensing of a Daiichi Sankyo BRAF inhibitor in 2020.

Matthew Ros

Now known as plixorafenib, the oral small molecule showed potential to “induce deep and durable benefit” for people with certain BRAF-mutated cancers, the company said in a release of Phase I/IIa results at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference earlier this summer.

“FORE Biotherapeutics is well-positioned to deliver on the promise of plixorafenib, which has demonstrated promising single-agent activity against BRAF-altered tumors, including primary central nervous system tumors,” Matthew Foy, partner at SR One and board member, said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to support the company as it further progresses its ongoing Phase 2 FORTE global, registrational trial.”

The Series D leads were SR One and Medicxi, which both disclosed new funds in recent months. The round follows a $57 million capital haul in September 2020. Existing investors also took part in the new financing, including OrbiMed, HBM Healthcare Investments, Novartis Venture Fund, 3B Future Health Fund, Cormorant Asset Management, Wellington Management and Samsung Securities.

Fore is also going through another CEO shuffle, as Ros will step down and leave the board as of Sept. 1. Ex-Elevation Oncology CEO Shawn Leland, who advises SR One, will be interim CEO until Fore finds a permanent replacement, the company said.

Ros had taken over for Usama Malik after the ex-Immunomedics CFO was charged with insider trading for giving non-public information around the cancer drug Trodelvy, which became a shining piece in its eventual $21 billion exit to Gilead several months later. Malik was handed the CEO keys in early 2021, replacing Michael Vidne, who switched to business and strategy chief.

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