Quanta Therapeutics Inc., a company developing therapies for RAS-driven cancers, closed $60 million in series C financing led by Surveyor Capital and Vida Ventures. The South San Francisco-based company said it would use proceeds from the financing to advance oncology-focused programs targeting RAF1 and KRAS through clinical candidate selection, IND filing and on to initial proof of concept.
When James Peyer, Cambrian Biopharma Inc.’s CEO, watched his grandfather fail every cancer treatment and eventually pass away, he came to a realization that now forms the backbone of his company. “The more I learned about cancer, the more convinced I became that we were approaching cancer as a disease in the wrong way,” Peyer told BioWorld. “We were waiting until people were sick and only then doing something about it.” Cambrian just closed on an oversubscribed series C that brought in $100 million to develop a pipeline of therapies designed to treat and prevent age-related diseases.
Smart Medical Systems Ltd. has released positive data showing its FDA-cleared G-eye balloon endoscope has a higher adenoma detection rate (ADR) compared to Olympus’ Endocuff Vision (ECV) technology in patients undergoing screening or surveillance colonoscopy.
Cedilla Therapeutics Inc., an oncology company targeting upstream aspects of native protein degradation pathways, extended its year-ago series B with a $25 million investment bringing the round's total to $82.6 million. Proceeds from the financing will support advancement of its two lead programs, an inhibitor of the transcriptional enhanced associate domain (TEAD) transcription factor in the Hippo signaling pathway for the treatment of solid tumors and a selective inhibitor of CDK2/cyclin E for the treatment of multiple tumor types.
CEO Gil Beyen of Erytech Pharma AS said the firm is mulling next steps in the aftermath of phase III data with eryaspase in second-line pancreatic cancer, where the compound – which consists of L-asparaginase encapsulated in a donor-derived red blood cell – missed its primary endpoint of overall survival. “We will have to regroup and see how we can further continue on the different programs that are ongoing,” he said during a conference call with investors.
Innovent Biologics Co. Ltd.’s phase III Orient-31 trial for sintilimab in EGFR-mutated nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer (nsqNSCLC) met its primary endpoint. In combination with anti-VEGF antibody Byvasda (bevacizumab biosimilar injection) and chemotherapy, the treatment improved progression-free survival vs. chemotherapy alone.