US-based cancer-focused biotechnology developer Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics (28-7) launched on Thursday with $65m in series A funding co-led by Novartis Venture Fund, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
Investment firm MPM Capital co-led the round, which also featured Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Astellas Venture Management, the respective corporate venture capital units of healthcare group Johnson & Johnson and pharmaceutical firm Astellas Pharma.
Vertex Ventures HC, a venture capital fund of Singaporean state-owned VC firm Vertex Ventures, also participated in the round, as did Longwood Fund. Novartis Venture Fund and MPM Capital are the founding investors in 28-7.
Spun out of Harvard University in 2016, 28-7 is developing a treatment that will target proteins modulating RNA to prevent cancer generation, progression and metastasis. The company will initially focus on inhibiting the activity of Lin28, a gene that has the potential to cause cancer.
The spinout’s approach is based on work undertaken by four researchers at Harvard Medical School – George Daley, Richard Gregory, Frank Slack and Piotr Sliz. The series A capital will allow the company to advance its lead drug candidate into serious cancer indications.
Michal Silverberg, managing director of Novartis Venture Fund, will join the board of directors, as will Luke Evnin, managing director and co-founder of MPM Capital, Briggs Morrison, executive partner of MPM Capital, and Carolyn Ng, principal at Vertex Ventures HC.
Kazumi Shiosaki, founding president and chief executive of 28-7, said: “This strong financing round was achieved thanks to the new biological understanding and impressive scientific data around non-coding RNA produced by our four scientific founders and the progress the 28-7 team has made since it was founded two years ago.
“Our experienced investors realise the promise in this new field of therapeutics and in the robust leads produced by our founders, who have made many of the seminal discoveries in this field, and by the exceptional scientists within the company.”