Vivace Therapeutics, a US-based oncology therapy developer backed by pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec, completed a $30m series C round yesterday led by life sciences investment fund Boxer Capital.
Boxer Capital, a subsidiary of investment firm Tavistock Group, was joined in the round by investment manager RA Capital Management and venture capital firm Canaan Partners. Norman Zhou, a senior vice-president at Boxer Capital, is taking a board seat at Vivace.
Founded in 2015, Vivace is working on small molecule drugs intended to treat carcinomas of high unmet medical need by targeting the Hippo pathway, a cell signalling pathway that controls organ size. It plans to bring its lead product candidate into clinical testing early next year.
Vivace’s president and CEO, Sofie Qiao, said: “The Hippo pathway has generated much interest, and we are excited to have discovered a portfolio of diverse chemical classes of compounds with excellent in vitro and in vivo activities.
“To the best of our knowledge, we will be the first company to take a molecule into the clinic targeting this novel pathway.”
WuXi AppTec subsidiary WuXi Healthcare Ventures co-led the company’s $15m series B round with Canaan in 2015. Both returned for a $25m series B led by Cenova Capital and also backed by Sequoia Capital China and Mission Bay Capital two years later.