Pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim’s Venture Fund (BIVF) co-led a $34m series A round for Actym Therapeutics, a US-based immuno-oncology drug developer allied to University of California, Berkeley, on Monday.
Healthcare-focused venture capital firm Panacea Venture co-led the round, which included Illumina Ventures, the investment arm of genomic technology provider Illumina, as well as Korea Investment Partners and JLo Ventures.
Founded in 2017, Actym is working on intravenous cancer immunotherapies that target immune cells in the microenvironment of multiple tumour subtypes.
The microbial-based approach is intended to combat advanced-stage cancers where the tumour has metastasised beyond its original site into other areas of the body, while avoiding the toxicity resulting from dosing through IV feeds.
BIVF investment director Kanad Das has joined Actym’s board of directors, as has Illumina Ventures partner Alexis Ji and James Huang from Panacea Ventures. It had previously raised $6.5m in seed funding according to its website but did not disclose additional details.
Das said: “On behalf of BIVF, we are excited to co-lead the investment in Actym. Actym’s unique approach has the potential to overcome the immunosuppressive [tumour microenvironment] and treat a broad range of malignancies via a systemic route of administration.”
Christopher Thanos, Actym’s co-founder, president and chief executive, added: “Our goal is to bring therapeutic benefit to cancer patients.
“We are fortunate to be aligned with investors who can provide both the financial resources and real-world leadership experience to help build Actym, advance our pipeline and ultimately help patients.”