Amphista Therapeutics, a UK-based oncology therapy developer spun out of University of Dundee, closed a $53m series B round yesterday featuring pharmaceutical firms Eli Lilly and Novartis.
The round was co-led by venture capital firm Forbion and healthcare investment firm Gilde Healthcare and also featured medical technology accelerator BioMotiv and VC firm Advent Life Sciences, while Novartis took part through its Novartis Venture Fund.
Founded in 2017, Amphista is working on treatments that tap into the body’s natural processes to degrade and remove proteins that cause diseases such as cancer and central nervous system disorders.
Florian Müllershausen, managing director at Novartis Venture Fund, have been appointed to Amphista’s board of directors along with Forbion partner Rogier Rooswinkel and Stefan Luzi, a partner at Gilde Healthcare.
Nicola Thompson, chief executive of Amphista, said: “Amphista will now accelerate its oncology pipeline towards the clinic and extend our portfolio into indications largely inaccessible by traditional [targeted protein degradation] approaches, such as diseases of the central nervous system.
“This oversubscribed series B supports our ambition as a world-leading next generation protein degradation company delivering ground-breaking new medicines to patients in areas of high unmet need.”
Amphista was founded by Advent Life Sciences and secured an undisclosed amount of seed financing from Scottish Investment Bank at an unspecified date. Advent Life Sciences led its $7.5m series A round in April 2020, investing with Scottish Investment Bank, European Investment Fund and BioMotiv.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.