Surfaceome company DISCO Pharmaceuticals launches with seed financing

DISCO Pharmaceuticals, a specialist biotech unlocking the surfaceome of cancer cells at scale to identify new targets and develop first in class drugs, today emerges from stealth.

Operating out of Cologne, Germany and Schlieren, Switzerland, DISCO successfully raised seed financing of 20 million euros ($22 million) and is backed by a world leading investor syndicate, including Sofinnova Partners, which led the round, Panakes Partners, M Ventures and AbbVie Ventures.

The company explains that the development of new treatment modalities in oncology is growing at an ever-increasing rate, but the lack of cell surface targets limits the application to a few clinically effective targets. The development of new biologics, such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and bi-specific antibodies, is on the rise. However, DISCO points out, there are currently less than 30 molecular targets which form the basis of all antibody-based therapies. Therefore, there is a significant need to identify novel cancer-selective targets and target pairs.