Canada-based radiotherapeutics developer Fusion Pharmaceuticals has launched with a $25m series A round led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the corporate venturing vehicle for healthcare group Johnson & Johnson.
Private equity firm HealthCap, venture capital firm Genesys Capital, cancer research hub Fight Against Cancer Innovation Trust and TPG Biotech, a subsidiary of private equity group TPG, also participated in the round.
Fusion is working on alpha-particle radiotherapeutics that will be used to treat cancer by attacking and destroying cancer cells. The radiotherapeutics will theoretically have the potency of alpha-particle emitting radioisotopes and the precision of molecular targeting agents.
The company was spun out of Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization, a research organisation located at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
The capital will support the advancement of Fusion’s lead product candidate, an antibody-targeted radiotherapy called FPX-01, into human clinical trials for the treatment of refractory cancers.
John Valliant, Fusion’s CEO, said: “Fusion is focused on combining our expertise in radiopharmaceutical development and production with the appropriate targeting molecules to create a new generation of therapeutics that can address the need for better cancer treatments.
“Fusion is proud to join a wave of new Canadian biotech companies that are being launched with innovative technologies emerging from research institutions like McMaster University.”