Israeli cancer treatment startup Pi Therapeutics has completed a $19.7 million financing round led by pontifex Fund, and with the participation of Canadian fund Quark Ventures, GF Securities, Arkin Bio-Ventures, Consensus Business Group (CBG) and RMPG, the biopharma fund, which invests in graduate companies at the FutuRX biotech incubator.
Pi Therapeutics was founded in 2015 at the FutuRX biotech incubator (operated by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, J&J and OrbiMed) and has now raised $24 million including the latest financing round. RMPG invested in the previous financing round together with Pontifax.
Pi's lead product is a novel first-in-class inhibitor of protein degradation that generated encouraging pre-clinical activity in multiple models of liquid and solid tumors. Proceeds from this financing will be used to advance Pi's lead program to clinical proof-of-concept.
Pi CEO Dr. Ori Kalid said, "While inhibition of protein degradation is a clinically-validated approach, there is still a need to identify novel drugs in this space with new modes of action, a broad spectrum of activity and an improved safety profile. We are excited by the potential of our new class of drugs to provide an effective and well-tolerated alternative to cancer patients."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 29, 2019
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