Switzerland-based oncology therapy developer Inthera Bioscience has closed a series A round featuring subsidiaries of pharmaceutical firms Merck & Co and Novo at €9.6m ($11.1m).
M Ventures and Novo Seeds were joined by venture capital firm Aglaia Biomedical Ventures and an unnamed private investor. The round was completed with a €4.7m second tranche, filling out a round originally announced in May 2017.
Inthera Bioscience is developing oral cancer drugs that aim to inhibit intracellular interactions between different proteins that are known as protein-to-protein interactions (PPIs), which have been linked to the formation of cancerous cells.
The company’s lead asset is a modular drug awaiting pre-clinical trials on dysregulated genetic transcriptions seemingly caused by PPIs.
M Ventures led Inthera’s $3.8m seed round in 2015, with participation from Novo Seeds, Aglaia’s Oncology Fund II and local life sciences startup agency EVA Basel.