TLDR:
- VC firm Column Group acquired NGM Bio and took it private three months ago.
- Column has overseen a $122 million series A fundraising round to support NGM’s clinical trials.
Three months after The Column Group acquired NGM Bio to take the biotech private, the VC firm has overseen a $122 million fundraise to fuel clinical trials of NGM’s two lead assets. Column swooped in to acquire publicly-listed NGM in February following a 2023 that saw a third of the biotech’s staff laid off and a sliding share price in the wake of a phase 2 trial failure for an age-related macular degeneration asset. Under the ownership of Column, NGM has been a private entity since April. Now, Column wants to inject some cash into NGM’s pipeline. Part of the $122 million series A—which involved “a select group of investors” led by Column—will go towards aldafermin. The engineered FGF19 analog failed in trials for the rare liver disease primary sclerosing cholangitis and for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). Despite later accruing some better MASH data, NGM is now only pursuing aldafermin for primary sclerosing cholangitis, where it has secured an orphan drug tag from the FDA, and will use part of today’s funds to launch a registrational trial in this indication. The rest of the funds will be used to complete the phase 2 trial of NGM120, a GDF15/GFRAL antagonist that is being evaluated for the treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum, a term for severe vomiting and nausea in pregnancy. Both trials are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024, NGM said in a July 17 release. Although not name-checked in this morning’s release, NGM has another clinical-stage asset in the form of NGM707. In January, the company reported “encouraging responses” from a phase 1 trial of the dual ILT2/ILT4 antagonist in combination with Merck & Co.’s Keytruda in multiple solid tumor indications. Before taking over NGM, Colum already owned almost 27% of the company’s outstanding stock, making it the biotech’s largest shareholder. The same month it announced the acquisition, Column co-launched a $400 million fund described as a “novel venture-biotech model … to support the advancement of ideas from bench to clinical proof of concept.”
