Frontier Medicines Appoints Gerardo Ubaghs as Chief Financial Officer and Announces $20 Million Series C Extension
- Gerardo Ubaghs brings high-profile global biopharma strategic and capital markets experience as newly appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
- Company adds $20 million to close oversubscribed Series C totaling $100 million
- Financing supports development of FMC-376 and acceleration of additional pipeline programs
BOSTON and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Frontier Medicines Corporation (“Frontier” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage precision medicine company seeking to unlock the proteome to advance transformational therapies against otherwise undruggable disease-causing targets, today announced the appointment of Gerardo Ubaghs as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the additional close of $20 million extension to its Series C, bringing the total amount raised to $100 million, with the financing slated to accelerate multiple pipeline programs.
“We are delighted to welcome Gerardo, an accomplished biopharma investment banking veteran, with an impressive track record of building long-term value creation for top tier biotech and pharmaceutical companies,” said Chris Varma, Ph.D., chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Frontier Medicines. “Gerardo is joining us following the extension of our Series C and at an overall exciting time for the company. I am confident that the wealth of experience that Gerardo brings in strategic long-term value creation and IPO and capital markets advisory for top-tier biotech and pharmaceutical companies will play a key role as Frontier advances its precision medicine programs, with the goal of filing one IND per year.”
Mr. Ubaghs brings 12 years of investment banking experience where he advised management teams and boards of biotech and pharmaceutical companies on capital raising and strategic needs. He has helped execute over $100 billion M&A and over $12 billion in equity and equity-related transactions. Prior to joining Frontier, he was a Managing Director in the Global Healthcare group of Bank of America, specializing in biopharma and computationally-enabled drug discovery. Prior to his investment banking career, Mr. Ubaghs was an accomplished violinist, with solo and chamber music performances across North America, Europe, Asia and South Africa. Mr. Ubaghs holds an M.B.A. from the Kelley School of Business of Indiana University and a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Valencia in Spain.
“As a strong believer in the integration of technology and biology, I am thrilled to join Frontier, with its ability to generate precision medicines powered by its computationally enabled chemoproteomics platform. Frontier’s ability to unlock hard-to-drug targets presents a significant opportunity to address a wide range of oncology and immunology targets that have been in dire need of innovation,” commented Gerardo Ubaghs, CFO of Frontier Medicines. “I look forward to working with Frontier’s outstanding team to further build on the strong momentum of recent years and contribute to Frontier realizing its full potential to advance and potentially transform patient care.”
The Company also announced the additional close of $20 million of its Series C financing, with participation from investors including Deep Track Capital and ArrowMark Partners, bringing the total raised to $100 million in this round.
The financing proceeds will support further advancement of Frontier’s FMC-376, a small molecule with a differentiated dual direct mechanism of action targeting both ON + OFF KRASG12C that is currently in the Phase 1/2 PROSPER trial (NCT06244771), and other preclinical/pipeline programs against high-value precision medicine targets.
About Frontier Medicines
Frontier Medicines is a clinical stage precision medicine company pioneering groundbreaking medicines to transform treatment for genetically-defined patient populations, starting with oncology and immunology. Our proprietary chemoproteomics powered drug discovery engine, the Frontier™ Platform, leverages covalent chemistry and machine learning to unlock hard-to-treat disease causing proteins for drug development. Today, we are advancing a diversified pipeline of wholly-owned precision medicines against the most important drivers of cancer and high-value immunology programs. Our lead candidate, FMC-376, is a dual inhibitor of ON+OFF KRASG12C. FMC-376 is a potential best-in-class therapy designed to completely block both forms of the KRAS mutation to overcome the lack of response and resistance seen with single-acting KRASG12C inhibitors. For more information, please visit www.frontiermeds.com. Follow Frontier on LinkedIn.
Frontier Medicines Contact:
Victoria Fort
SVP, Strategy and Corporate Affairs
Victoria.Fort@frontiermeds.com
202.361.0445
