US-based biopharmaceutical company Syros Pharmaceuticals has closed a $40m series C round featuring WuXi Healthcare Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of medical research company WuXi PharmaTech.
Investment firm Deerfield Management, Alexandria Venture Investments, the investment vehicle of life sciences real estate provider Alexandria, and financial services group Fidelity Management and Research also invested, alongside Casdin Capital, Polaris Partners, Redmile Group and Aisling Capital.
Syros is working on therapies that control gene expression to treat cancer and other serious diseases. The money will support a phase 2 clinical trial of its lead candidate as well as advancement of the company’s remaining pipeline.
WuXi Healthcare Ventures previously supported Syros’ $53m series B round in 2014, which also featured Alexandria Venture Investments, Flagship Ventures, Polaris, Redmile, Aisling and Arch Venture Partners.
WuXi also contributed funds to a $30m series A round in 2013, alongside Arch and Flagship.
The limited partners in Deerfield’s specialist healthcare fund include Seattle Children’s Hospital, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and cancer research centre Memorial Sloan Kettering, Princeton and Northwestern universities, and philanthropic outfit Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The fund was launched in July 2015 and is aimed at startups developing treatments for genetic diseases, orphan diseases and cancer.
Jonathan Leff, partner at Deerfield Management, said: “Syros is pioneering a unique approach for discovering genes that regulate disease mechanisms and developing medicines to control those genes.
“This financing should give Syros the funding to reach a data readout for its lead program, which is a critical inflection point for the company in validating its novel platform.”