Nurix Therapeutics, a US-based oncology drug developer that counts pharmaceutical firm Celgene as an investor, has completed a $120m round led by life sciences investment firm Foresite Capital.
Incubator and venture capital firm Third Rock Ventures also contributed to the round, as did private equity firm Bain Capital’s Life Sciences unit, Tavistock Group’s Boxer Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Redmile Group, Wellington Management, Column Group and an undisclosed investor.
Founded in 2009 as Kura Therapeutics, Nurix is developing cancer drugs that modulate production of specific proteins by triggering an enzyme class known as E3 ligase.
Nurix’s pipeline includes two preclinical candidates: a drug for B-cell malignancies expected to secure US clinical-stage approval later this year, in addition to a cancer immunotherapy focused on stimulating immune system T-cells. The funding will go towards advancing its candidates into the clinic.
The company was co-founded by two faculty members at University of California (UC), Berkeley, John Kuriyan and Michael Rapé, together with Arthur Weiss, a distinguished professor at UC San Francisco. All three are also researchers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Nurix has collaborative programs in place with Celgene and fellow pharmaceutical firms Sanofi and Gilead. Celgene supplied an undisclosed amount of equity funding as part of the 2015 deal, and a securities filing a few weeks ahead of the announcement showed Nurix had secured $17m in funding.
The deal followed $25.1m in funding for Nurix in a 2014 series B round featuring Third Rock and Column Group. The latter had led a $6.2m round backed by Third Rock that closed in 2013, after $3.1m in funding in the year before, according to a regulatory filing.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing. Image courtesy of Nurix Therapeutics, Inc.