Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines targeting the activation of mTORC1*, completed a $33m Series B financing. he round was led by new investor Brace Pharma Capital, LLC, a strategic investment company formed by EMS S.A., a large pharmaceutical company in Brazil, and high net worth biotech investors, with participation from new investors Remeditex Ventures, Sanofi-Genzyme BioVentures, and an undisclosed individual investor as well as existing investors Polaris Partners, Atlas Venture, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. and SR One, Ltd.
Navitor’s proprietary drug discovery platform is built on new insights into the activation of mTORC1. Navitor’s drug discovery platform leverages proprietary intellectual property and know-how related to key targets within the cellular pathways required for the activation of mTORC1 as well as their fundamental role in age-related disease processes. Navitor was founded based on groundbreaking discoveries related to the mTORC1 pathway and the role of nutrient signaling, as well as other cellular mechanisms in the regulation of its activation, by the company’s scientific founder, Dr. David Sabatini, MD, PhD, at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Dr. Sabatini’s work was instrumental in the discovery of the mTOR kinase and its two multi-protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, each of which mediates distinct aspects of the mTOR signaling network.
They are applying their technology to develop novel product candidates for age-related and genetic rare diseases. Navitor’s technology is applicable to a wide range of diseases that have been correlated with aging in which nutrient signaling and other cellular mechanisms that drive the activation of the mTORC1 pathway are dysregulated. Navitor’s approach is to selectively “turn up” or “turn down” these cellular pathways to restore normal activity of mTORC1. By selectively targeting the activation of the mTORC1 pathway, Navitor is creating a new class of therapeutics designed to rebalance these signals and restore the normal functional activity of mTORC1 to address the underlying biology of multiple age-related and genetic rare diseases.