- Funding propels Artios’ ability to progress beyond synthetic lethality and to continue the exploitation of the full spectrum of oncology vulnerabilities presented by the DNA Damage Response through deployment of Artios’ DDR-based platform and small molecule drug discovery capabilities
- Financing supports expansion of potentially best-in-class ATR inhibitor and first-in-class highly selective Polθ inhibitor programs by enabling clinical development in multiple tumor settings and biological backgrounds of single agent and combination therapies
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 27 July 2021 - LSP, one of Europe’s leading life sciences and health care investors, today announced that its LSP 6 portfolio company Artios Pharma Limited (Artios), a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company, completed a $ 153 million (£ 110 million) Series C financing to fund further development of its promising clinical-stage pipeline.
The oversubscribed financing was co-led by Omega Funds and TCG X. Additional investors include Avidity Partners, Invus, Deep Track Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Tetragon Financial Group, RTW Investments LP, Soleus Capital, Piper Heartland Healthcare Capital, CaaS Capital Management, and Schroders Capital. These new investors join existing investors Arix Bioscience plc, SV Health Investors, Andera Partners, LSP, M Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, IP Group plc, and Novartis Venture Fund who also continue to support Artios through their participation.
In connection with the close of the Series C financing, Michelle Doig, Partner, Head of Corporate Development, Omega Funds and Chen Yu, Founding Managing Partner, TCG X, will join Artios’ Board of Directors.
Dr. René Kuijten, Managing Partner at LSP and Board Member of Artios, said: “The Artios’ team has succeeded in creating the world’s leading DNA repair drug discovery and biology platform. The new blue chip investors joining us further validate Artios’ leading position propelling Artios to the next inflection point. The financing is the result of the outstanding performance of the team and we are excited to support Artios’ vision of bringing innovative life-saving medicines to patients.”
Dr. Niall Martin, Chief Executive Officer, Artios, said: “We are thrilled to have such great investors support our vision in this latest Series C fundraise co-led by Omega Funds and TCG X alongside a premier group of new and existing investors. This is an exciting time for Artios as we continue to progress our potential best-in-class ATR program in the clinic and prepare to launch our Polθ program into first-in-human studies in the second half of 2021. By ensuring that our DDR platform and pipeline programs are well-funded, we have successfully cleared a runway to execute our near-term clinical objectives. Having this caliber of strategic investors supporting our mission to bring next-generation DDR programs targeting hard to treat cancers to market adds further validation to Artios’ cancer-killing DDR Platform.”
Artios is actively developing a pipeline of highly promising potentially best-in-class and first-in-class DDR therapies identified from a global network of leading researchers in the DDR field, including through Cancer Research UK. The inhibition of novel DNA repair targets, like Polθ, in tumors where DNA damage response factors have been lost or down regulated will lead to cancer cells being selectively destroyed without harming normal cells. This creates an opportunity for such products to be used with existing and future therapies to kill cancer.
This financing follows an $ 84 million (£ 65 million) Series B fundraise concluded in August 2018 and yields total capital raised to date from investors and strategic partners of more than $ 320 million.
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