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Tempest Therapeutics
Stephen Brady's Tempest Therapeutics channels public-market capital into three oncology programs, with lead candidate amezalpat in Phase 2 for liver...
Tempest Therapeutics
Tempest Therapeutics formed in 2011 and later merged with Millendo Therapeutics in 2021 to gain a Nasdaq listing. Stephen Brady has served as CEO since 2019, steering the company through a transition that paired its early-stage oncology pipeline with a publicly traded shell company. The company's research focuses on altering the tumor microenvironment to improve immune response, rather than targeting cancer cells directly. The firm's pipeline contains three disclosed clinical-stage programs. Amezalpat, formerly TPST-1120, is an oral PPARα antagonist in Phase 2 development for first-line hepatocellular carcinoma in combination with Roche's Tecentriq and Avastin. Tempest presented positive overall survival data at the 2024 ASCO annual meeting. A second program, TPST-1495, targets the EP2/EP4 prostaglandin pathway and completed a Phase 1 trial in solid tumors. The third program, TREX1 inhibitor research, remains in preclinical discovery. The company operates entirely in the United States, with a pipeline licensed from Inception Sciences and the University of California. Tempest reported roughly $30 million in cash and equivalents at year-end 2024 and has funded operations through equity offerings and a debt facility with Oxford Finance. Headcount has been reduced in recent years to preserve capital — the company announced a workforce reduction of approximately 25% in late 2023. March 2024: Tempest presented Phase 2 data for amezalpat showing a 6.2-month overall survival advantage over standard-of-care in a randomized study of first-line liver cancer patients, sending shares up sharply on the news. The company's structure creates an unorthodox governance profile for a development-stage biotech: because Tempest accessed public markets via a reverse merger rather than a traditional IPO, its shareholder base includes legacy Millendo investors alongside newer healthcare specialists. This ownership mix produces a more diffuse registrar than a typical preclinical-stage company, placing an unusual premium on management's ability to articulate translational science to a generalist audience.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2011
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Brisbane
Corporate office
Brisbane, CA, United States
Principals
Stephen Brady
President and Chief Executive Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Tempest Therapeutics?
Stephen Brady, as President and CEO, leads all capital allocation and strategic decisions for the company. The board of directors, which includes representatives from the legacy Millendo merger, holds ultimate fiduciary authority over major financings and partnership transactions.
What distinguishes Tempest's lead drug candidate from other liver cancer treatments?
Amezalpat is an oral small-molecule PPARα antagonist designed to alter the tumor microenvironment rather than attack cancer cells directly. In a randomized Phase 2 study presented at the 2024 ASCO GI Cancers Symposium, the combination of amezalpat with standard-of-care immunotherapy showed a 6.2-month improvement in overall survival compared to immunotherapy alone. The mechanism is distinct from both checkpoint inhibitors and anti-angiogenic agents currently approved in hepatocellular carcinoma.
How did Tempest Therapeutics become publicly traded?
Tempest merged with Millendo Therapeutics in 2021, a publicly traded biotech that had been winding down operations after a failed Phase 2b study. The transaction functioned as a reverse merger, giving Tempest access to Nasdaq listing and Millendo's remaining cash reserves without conducting a traditional IPO roadshow.
What is Tempest's current financial position?
The company reported approximately $30 million in cash and equivalents at the close of 2024. Tempest has funded operations through a combination of public equity offerings and a loan facility with Oxford Finance. The company reduced its workforce by roughly 25% in late 2023 as part of a cost-containment effort to preserve runway for the amezalpat program.
Does Tempest Therapeutics have partnership agreements with larger pharmaceutical companies?
Tempest has a clinical collaboration agreement with Roche for the amezalpat Phase 2 study, under which Roche supplies atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Avastin) as the standard-of-care backbone. No broader licensing or co-development partnership with a major pharmaceutical company has been disclosed publicly.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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