DNA damage response specialist Artios Ltd. has closed an oversubscribed $115 million series D after delivering positive phase I/IIa data for its two lead programs.
Off-the-shelf cancer vaccine specialist Nouscom AG announced positive final results for its lead product, Nous-209, showing there was a “highly potent” and durable immune response in carriers of Lynch syndrome, a common hereditary condition that can increase the lifetime risk of cancer by as much as 80%. The data, presented at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting on April 29, indicate Nous-209 elicits a cancer-preventing effect.
LONDON – Artios Ltd. has closed a $153 million series C, positioning it to intensify clinical development of its two lead programs, whilst applying its DNA damage response platform to exploit the full spectrum of vulnerabilities presented by inhibition of DNA damage repair enzymes.
Artios Pharma Ltd. plans to begin the first clinical trials of a POLQ inhibitor class cancer drug later this year. There are a handful of companies working on POLQ inhibitor drugs, the name of the gene that encodes the enzyme DNA polymerase theta, but it looks like Artios has taken a head start following the publication of the supportive study in Nature Communications.
LONDON – DNA damage response (DDR) specialist Artios Pharma Ltd. has signed a potential $1.3 billion deal to apply its technology to discover drugs that will work in combination with Novartis AG’s radioligand therapies.
LONDON – DNA damage repair (DDR) specialist Artios Pharma Ltd. has sealed a $860 million per target deal with Merck KGaA, around a series of small-molecule DNA nuclease inhibitors. The deal, for up to eight targets, will see Artios get $30 million in up-front and near-term milestones to take programs to the point at which Merck will decide on its option to take them in-house. For any products that make it to market, the $860 million in milestones along the way will be followed by double-digit royalties on sales. Subject to certain conditions, Cambridge-based Artios has rights to do joint development with Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck.
