US-based biopharmaceutical company Arrakis Therapeutics has closed a $75m series B round that included internet technology group Alphabet and pharmaceutical firms WuXi AppTec, Celgene and Pfizer.
VenBio Partners and Nextech Invest co-led the round, which also featured Alexandria Venture Investments, the venture capital arm of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Osage University Partners (OUP), Omega Funds, HBM Healthcare Investments, Canaan Partners, Advent Life Sciences and private investor Henri Termeer filled out the round. Alphabet, WuXi AppTec and Pfizer invested through GV, WuXi AppTec Venture Fund and Pfizer Ventures respectively.
Arrakis is developing drugs that directly target RNA in order to treat conditions unaddressed by current treatments. Its specifically aiming to create medicines for neurological diseases, cancer and rare genetic disorders.
The company has licensed technology relating to small molecule drug candidates that directly target RNA from University of Pennsylvania. That research was led by David Chenoweth, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry.
The series B funding will be used to build out the company’s pipeline and advance at least one drug candidate into clinical trials. It is focusing drug development on oncology and genetically validated targets in other diseases, and plans to refine and expand its drug discovery platform.
Arrakis chairman Michael Gilman has also been appointed its chief executive, the company said. VenBio principal Richard Gaster and Nextech Invest partner Jakob Love will join its board of directors.
Canaan Partners had previously led a $38m series A round for Arrakis in 2017 that included Pfizer Ventures, Celgene, OUP, Advent Life Sciences and Henri Termeer.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
