NovellusDx, a clinical-stage biotech focused on precision oncology, has rebranded itself as Fore Biotherapeutics and will operate out of the U.S.
Fore, which began as a diagnostics company out of Israel, is now in the process of establishing its headquarters and executive leadership team in the U.S., starting with the appointment of Usama Malik as CEO. Malik most recently led the turnaround of Immunomedics, which was acquired by Gilead Sciences for $21 billion.
Last June, Novellus signed an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Plexxikon, a member of the Daiichi Sankyo Group, for PLX8394, its clinical-stage oncology drug candidate which targets the BRAF protein. Now Novellus/Fore's lead program, PLX-8394 has demonstrated clinical safety and early efficacy signals in an ongoing phase 1/2 trials.
Using an integrated functional genomics and machine learning drug discovery engine, Fore synthesizes a wide range of mutations across validated oncological targets and in-licenses clinical stage small molecule assets to develop for hyper-targeted populations. Essentially, the company can take clinical compounds that may have failed against broad populations in trials and redirect them towards precision populations.
In an interview with Endpoints News, Malik said he is actively looking to build Fore's pipeline, and plans to license 2-4 experimental treatments by the end of 2022.