Firefly Bio, a California-based startup, has debuted on the biotech scene with a Series A funding round of $94 million to support its novel platform for treating cancer by merging antibody-drug conjugates with protein degraders.
 
Versant Ventures and MPM BioImpact led the Series A along with Decheng Capital and a contribution from Eli Lilly. According to Firefly, its degrader antibody conjugates (DACs) leverage both antibody- drug conjugates (ADCs) and protein degraders. By combining the two into one platform, the company claims that it can negate the limitations of each treatment.
 
Firefly hopes to create new therapeutics to drug intracellular biological targets impeded by therapeutic index issues when delivered. Specifically, the biotech’s platform uses catalytic protein degraders as the payloads of ADCs.
 
Combining this action with its proprietary tech, may result in lower doses, according to the company. Firefly said preclinical studies in solid and liquid tumors have led to significant reductions in tumor volume at “meager” dosage amounts.
 
“DACs are a new modality for cancer,” Firefly CEO Scott Hirsch said. “They give us the ability to hit biologically validated targets with minimal collateral damage. Our platform enables DACs at scale and vastly expands the number of payloads for ADCs.”