Cyteir Therapeutics, a US-based cancer therapy developer spun out of Jackson Laboratory, completed an $80m series C round yesterday backed by pharmaceutical firm Novo.
Investment manager RA Capital Management led the round, which also featured Janus Henderson Investors, Acuta Capital Partners, Ally Bridge Group, Avidity Partners, Ample Plus Fund, Venrock, Lightstone Ventures, Droia Ventures, CaaS Capital Management and Osage University Partners (OUP).
Founded in 2012, Cyteir is working on treatments that exploit DNA damage response biology to target key vulnerabilities in cancer cells. Its lead product candidate, CYT-0851, is targeting B-cell malignancies like non-Hodgkin lymphoma and solid tumours.
The capital has been allocated to advancing CYT-0851 into phase 2 monotherapy trials in patients with haematologic cancers and solid tumours. The company will also conduct clinical trials of CYT-0851 with other therapies and expand its preclinical pipeline.
Cyteir closed a $75.2m series B round in late 2019 that was led by Novo and which included fellow pharmaceutical company Celgene, Droia Ventures, OUP, Lightstone Ventures and Venrock.
Celgene had previously contributed to a $5.8m series A round the company closed in 2016, participating alongside undisclosed private investors.
Markus Renschler, president and chief executive of Cyteir, said: “This advantage and the speed at which we have advanced our lead programme from discovery to the clinic has enabled us to secure interest and investment from multiple, high-tier healthcare investors.
“We are grateful for their support, which will fund phase 2 studies of CYT-0851 monotherapy scheduled to begin later this year, as well as clinical studies beginning mid-year that will further explore its potential in combination with other cancer therapies.”
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.