A drug discovery company unlocking the potential of N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) as a therapeutic target to develop precision medicines for a range of diseases including cancer and viral infections
Myricx Pharma (“Myricx”) is a small molecule drug discovery company engaged in developing novel proprietary inhibitors of human N-myristoyltransferases (NMT), with a primary focus in oncology but also exploring potential applications across viral and other diseases.
Myricx operates from the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst facility, UK, and was founded in 2019 based on discoveries made at Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute by its co-founders Prof Ed Tate, Dr Andrew Bell and Dr Roberto Solari. The research teams identified that inhibition of NMT, an enzyme involved in myristoylation of certain proteins, results in specific cancer cell killing via an unexpected and unique mechanism. This breakthrough discovery reveals that NMT inhibitors are proving to be highly effective in the treatment of MYC-driven cancer models. Until now MYC was considered to be undruggable. Myricx is now prioritising the development of potent small-molecule inhibitors with the aim of building a proprietary pipeline of targeted cancer therapies.
