US-based oncology therapy developer Imago BioSciences has completed an $80m series C round featuring subsidiaries of contract research organisation Pharmaron and pharmaceutical firms Amgen and Merck & Co.
Pharmaron Investments, Amgen Ventures and MRL Ventures Fund participated alongside backers including investment firm Farallon Capital Management, which led the round, Irving Investors, Omega Funds, Surveyor Capital and Kingdon Capital Management.
The round was filled out by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price and funds and accounts managed by Blackrock Advisors, in addition to Frazier Healthcare Partners, HighLight Capital, Greenspring Associates, Xeraya Capital and a fund managed by Blackstone Life Sciences.
Imago’s lead product candidate is bomedemstat, a prospective treatment for a rare group of bone marrow cancers known as myeloproliferative neoplasms, and the series C funds will take it through an ongoing phase 2b clinical trial and the phase 3 trial set to follow.
The company closed its series A round at $40.5m in 2017 having raised $26.5m in a 2014 first tranche led by Clarus Ventures and backed by Amgen Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund and Frazier Healthcare Partners.
Omega Funds led Imago’s $40m series B round in March 2019, investing alongside Pharmaron, MRL Ventures Fund, Amgen Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Partners, HighLight Capital and Greenspring Associates.
