Apogen Biotechnologies, a US-based oncology therapy spinout of University of Minnesota, boosted its series A round to $11m yesterday with $4m from investors including pharmaceutical firm Merck Group.
Merck invested through corporate venturing subsidiary M Ventures, participating alongside unnamed existing investors.
Pharmaceutical firms Eli Lilly, WuXi AppTec, AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson all contributed to the $7m first tranche in late 2016, the latter two through their AbbVie Ventures and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC units.
Alexandria Venture Investments, a subsidiary of real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, also backed the 2016 close, as did Accelerator Corporation, Arch Venture Partners, Watson Fund and WRF Capital, the investment arm of Washington Research Foundation.
Founded in 2014, Apogen is working on medications that impede drug resistance in cancerous cells by targeting an enzyme linked to genetic mutations in cancer.
The additional series A funding will drive recruitment as Apogen prepares to open a laboratory in Seattle. Keno Gutierrez, an investment director at M Ventures, has joined the company’s board of directors.
Gutierrez said: “After careful diligence, we believe that ApoGen’s novel Apobec technology has tremendous potential to enable a new class of drugs targeting the underlying mechanisms that give rise to drug resistance.
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to participate in the development of this exciting technology through our investment in this expanded series A financing, which is consistent with our mission to drive therapeutic innovation.”
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.