Joey Azofeifa, Founder and CEO of Arpeggio Bio, shared on LinkedIn:
“Last month, we made the difficult decision to wind down Arpeggio Bio. Our lead drug program (a small molecule NRF2 degrader for NSCLC) represented years of novel science. But in the end, we were unable to separate the molecule’s efficacy from an off-target liability.
It’s impossible to summarize Arpeggio (a force that consumed my life for almost a decade) in a LinkedIn post. But I have some thoughts, so if you are curious, see below.
First off, drug discovery is hard. And although I’ve worked with some truly optimistic scientists, the biotech field is no stranger to cynicism. If a program’s failure rate is >99% at inception, why even bother? Over the last few months, as our NRF2 program began to unravel, I found myself asking: is this the point where I finally become the cynical drug hunter? In short, I am unsure (as unsatisfying as that answer feels to me right now).
But here’s one thing I do know: making medicine is a privilege. There’s no greater purpose than trying to ease suffering. We are magicians, brewing elixirs and potions so that we can turn sickness into health. If that’s not magic, I really don’t know what is.
Here’s another thing I know: Arpeggio’s founding idea was beautiful. We thought of biology as a deeply interconnected web and our goal was to develop medicine to restore the system rather than ablate a single target. There are numerous challenges associated with conceiving of drug discovery in this way, but this perspective left me in a perpetual state of awe. I’m grateful to have felt so small against the complexity of molecular biology.
I know a couple more things: Arpeggio did a lot of work. In the end, we generated over 50M experiments in dozens of reporter lines incubated with a library of more than 150,000 compounds. We sequenced over 300,000 transcriptomes (and lots of other -omes), made more than 2,000 proprietary small molecules across four different drug programs, and performed hundreds of ADME, PK, and efficacy studies.
Practically though, drug discovery is a privilege because it’s so capital intensive. The Arpeggio investor was truly world-class in advice, candor, respect, and professionalism.
But what I am most sure of is that Arpeggio was an incredible team. I once thought building a company meant collecting the right cards – the right scientist, the right advisor, the right VC. But our finest ideas always emerged from people of very different backgrounds colliding. Even still, I saw people enter Arpeggio ‘as a biologist’ and leave as a ‘pharmacologist/chemical-biologist/biophysicist/engineer’ amalgamation. Their identities blurred into something new; really, I think they just became a better scientist. I am so honored to count myself among them.
Anyway, it’s unlikely I’ll become the cynic…life is just too mysterious and interesting. Arpeggio meant so much to me. Thank you to everyone who has supported us over these years. I hope I can return the favor.”