Mavupharma

About Mavupharma

Mavupharma was a biopharmaceutical company that operated in the oncology sector, specializing in leveraging the innate immune system to combat cancer. Founded in 2016 by a team of experienced industry veterans, Michael Gallatin, Ph.D., and Gregory Dietsch, Ph.D., the company focused on the STimulator of INterferon Genes (STING) pathway, a critical component of the body's natural immune response against tumors. Gallatin, who served as the company's president, has a multi-decade background as a scientist and executive, co-founding several other biopharmaceutical firms, including Calistoga Pharmaceuticals. Dietsch, the chief scientific officer, brought extensive experience from roles at VentiRx and ICOS.

The company's core business was drug discovery and development, aimed at creating treatments for cancer and infectious diseases. Mavupharma's primary scientific approach was to develop orally active, small-molecule drugs to modulate the STING pathway. This distinguished it from competitors whose therapies often required direct injection into tumors. The company's lead product candidate was MAVU-104, a first-in-class, oral inhibitor of ENPP1, an enzyme that negatively regulates the STING pathway. By inhibiting ENPP1, MAVU-104 was designed to enhance STING signaling in a controlled manner, activating an immune response against cancer cells without the systemic side effects associated with direct STING agonists. The goal was to offer a more tunable and less toxic treatment option.

A significant milestone for Mavupharma was securing $20 million in a Series A financing round in 2017, led by Frazier Healthcare Partners and Alpine BioVentures, which enabled the advancement of its drug candidates toward clinical trials. This funding supported the development that led to the selection of MAVU-104 as its first clinical candidate in early 2019. The company's progress and promising platform culminated in its acquisition by the global biopharmaceutical company AbbVie in July 2019 for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition was intended to bolster AbbVie's early-stage oncology pipeline, providing them with Mavupharma's novel STING modulator platform to develop new cancer therapies.