Coferon

Coferon, Inc. was a privately held biotechnology company founded in 2009, with its headquarters at the Long Island High Tech Incubator on the campus of Stony Brook University in New York. The company was established to advance the concept of self-assembling "coferons," a technology pioneered by its academic founders: Dr. Francis Barany and Dr. Maneesh Pingle from Weill-Cornell Medical College, and Dr. Don Bergstrom from Purdue University. By 2011, Dr. Colin Goddard, former CEO of OSI Pharmaceuticals, joined as part-time Executive Chairman, assuming the full-time role of Chairman and CEO in July 2012 following a significant financing round.

The company's core business revolved around a proprietary technology platform using bioorthogonal linker chemistry to deliver small molecules in component parts. This approach aimed to bridge the gap between small-molecule drugs and large biomolecules like antibodies. The technology involved administering covalently linked dimers that would dissociate into smaller monomers under physiological conditions. These monomers could then enter target cells and reassemble on the target protein, creating a therapeutic molecule with enhanced size, potency, and selectivity. The firm's research and development programs were focused on epigenetic regulation, with a particular emphasis on the BRD family of proteins, and on developing new anti-infectives. The business model likely centered on leveraging this platform to develop a pipeline of drug candidates and forming strategic partnerships with larger pharmaceutical companies. This is evidenced by their capital-efficient development plan combined with select collaborations.

A significant milestone for Coferon was the closure of a $12 million Series B financing round in July 2012, led by new investors Hatteras Venture Partners, MedImmune Ventures (the corporate venture arm of AstraZeneca), and Ascent Biomedical Ventures. This funding followed an initial phase where the company successfully demonstrated proof-of-concept for its technology in both in-vitro and in-vivo settings. The company, which also operated under the name BlinkBio, raised a total of $15.6 million over 8 funding rounds. However, the company is now considered deadpooled.

Keywords: Coferon, BlinkBio, bioorthogonal chemistry, self-assembling drugs, epigenetic regulation, anti-infectives, drug delivery platform, small molecule therapeutics, intracellular targets, protein interaction domains, BRD family inhibitors, Francis Barany, Colin Goddard, MedImmune Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, Ascent Biomedical Ventures, Stony Brook University, drug discovery, biotechnology, linker technology