SR One, the investment arm of pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), has led and syndicated a $47.6m series A round for US-based oncology drug developer Palleon Pharmaceuticals that closed yesterday.
Pharmaceutical companies AbbVie, Pfizer and Takeda also took part in the round through respective subsidiaries AbbVie Ventures, Pfizer Ventures and Takeda Ventures, and were joined by Singaporean state-backed venture capital fund Vertex Ventures.
Founded in 2015, Palleon is developing drugs to treat cancerous tumours by targeting glycoimmune checkpoints, immune cell receptors which are tricked by sugar molecules on the surface of cancer cells into supressing the body’s immune response, allowing tumours to grow.
The company was originally incubated in the offices of SR One, where Palleon’s co-founder and CEO Jim Broderick served as entrepreneur-in-residence, working closely with Jens Eckstein, president of SR One, who seeded the company and led the series A round..
Broderick said: “Palleon was spawned by bringing together new findings in glycoscience and human immunology, which resulted in unexpected implications for oncology.
“The convergence of these two fields has enabled us to develop a novel class of medicines that could have a significant impact on the lives of cancer patients.”
Palleon received $8.6m in equity funding from an undisclosed investor in July 2016, according to a regulatory filing. It will use the series A capital to advance development of its platform and begin work on its product pipeline.
– This article was updated on October 9, 2017 to note that SR One led the series A round, and to reflect Jens Eckstein’s involvement.