Storm Therapeutics, a UK-based developer of epigenetic cancer therapies, extended a series A round featuring pharmaceutical firms Merck Group, Pfizer and Taiho Pharmaceutical to £30m ($38.2m) today.
The company raised $17.8m in the round’s third tranche, from all three corporates’ investment vehicles – M Ventures, Pfizer Ventures and Taiho Ventures – as well as venture capital firm Seroba Life Sciences, commercialisation firm IP Group and Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), University of Cambridge’s affiliate patient capital fund.
M Ventures and Pfizer Ventures joined Touchstone Innovations, the IP Group subsidiary then known as Imperial Innovations, for the $16m first close in 2016, before Taiho Ventures added $5.4m to the round in January 2018.
Founded in 2015 as Iceni Therapeutics, Storm Therapeutics is working on cancer medications that target epigenetic RNA-modifying enzymes, RNA being the template for the synthesis of proteins and an important part of cellular decision making.
Storm believes it can deliver new treatments by focusing on RNA subtypes not previously exploited for oncological purposes. It was co-founded by Tony Kouzarides, a professor of cancer biology at University of Cambridge’s Gurdon Institute, and his colleague Eric Miska, the Herchel Smith professor of molecular genetics.
The company will use the additional capital to push its drug candidates through preclinical development. It recently appointed Mark Albertella, former director of oncological drug developer Medivir, as its vice-president for translational oncology.
CIC appears to have supplied the spinout with an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2015, according to a report for investor conference Biotech Showcase, though further details could not be confirmed.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.