Cleave Biosciences, US-based drugs company targeting cancers and backed by Japan-based pharmaceutical corporation Astellas’ corporate venturing unit, has extended its series A round by $10m from venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates.
In October 2011, Cleave Biosciences secured $42m from Astellas Venture Management and venture capital firms US Venture Partners, 5AM Ventures and Clarus Ventures, and investment firm OrbiMed Advisors. A month later, in November 2011, Cleave raised a further $2m from Osage Venture Partners, a VC firm that partners with academic institutions as a coinvestor licensing university technologies.
Cleave was set up to discover cancer treatments based around the molecular structure of each patient’s individual tumour after research by Raymond Deshaies, professor at the California Institute of Technology and scientific co-founder of Cleave.