Tasca Therapeutics

About Tasca Therapeutics

Tasca Therapeutics, established in 2022, is a biotechnology firm concentrated on the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors for challenging oncology indications. The company made a significant market entrance in December 2024 by securing $52 million in a Series A financing round. This pivotal funding was co-led by Regeneron Ventures and Cure Ventures, with additional participation from Invus Group, and is allocated to advance the company's drug discovery platform and propel its lead candidate into clinical trials.

The company was co-founded by CEO Milenko Cicmil, Ph.D., alongside scientific co-founders Xu Wu, Ph.D., David Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., and Duojia Pan, Ph.D. Dr. Cicmil possesses over 25 years of experience in drug discovery and biopharmaceutical innovation, having held senior positions at major companies like Merck, AstraZeneca, and Ipsen. His extensive background includes contributions to the development of major therapies such as Keytruda. Dr. Xu Wu, an Associate Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, is a pioneer in the chemical biology of protein autopalmitoylation. Dr. Duojia Pan is recognized for his foundational discoveries related to the Hippo pathway, a key regulator of tissue growth. The inception of Tasca was sparked by a conversation between Dr. Cicmil and Dave Fallace, a founding partner of Cure Ventures, which led to the formation of the company around Dr. Wu's novel platform.

Tasca Therapeutics operates in the oncology market, focusing on developing new medicines for cancer patients. Its business model revolves around its proprietary drug discovery platform, which identifies and maps novel lipid-binding pockets on proteins. The company's name, the Italian word for "pocket," reflects this core scientific approach. By harnessing mass spectrometry-based proteomics, Tasca identifies proteins that undergo auto-palmitoylation, a specific post-translational modification. These modification sites serve as unique binding areas for new therapeutics, enabling the company to target proteins previously considered undruggable.

The firm's lead product candidate is CP-383, a first-in-class small molecule that has shown robust anti-cancer activity in preclinical studies. This candidate is being developed to treat patients with tumors that have a specific genetic profile. Initial clinical evaluations for CP-383 will focus on patients with small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, and brain cancer, with clinical trials anticipated to start in 2025. The company's unique selling proposition is its ability to drug these auto-palmitoylation sites, potentially unlocking a new class of cancer therapies.