Radiation cancer therapy co Alpha Tau Medical raises $29m

Israeli alpha radiation cancer therapy developer Alpha Tau Medical announced today that it has closed a $29 million financing round led by Shavit Capital and with the participation of OurCrowd, Medison Ventures and private equity investors Sir Ronald Cohen and Alan Patricof.

Alpha Tau CEO Uzi Sofer said, "We are excited by the strong support provided by these distinguished investors. The funding will be invaluable to explore the full potential of the Alpha DaRT as a cancer treatment for clinical trials worldwide, as well as establish global production facilities for the radioactive DaRT seeds to meet local distribution demand."

Founded in 2016, Alpha Tau Medical is focusing on R&D and commercialization of its cancer treatment, Alpha DaRT. The DaRT technology was invented in 2003 by Prof. Itzhak Kelson and Prof. Yona Keisari from the Tel Aviv University and was originally patented by Ramot, the Business Engagement Center of Tel Aviv University that became a shareholder of Alpha Tau Medical.

Alpha DaRT enables the first alpha-radiation-based cancer treatment for various types of solid tumors. It delivers high-precision alpha radiation that is released when radioactive substances decay inside the tumor. The short-range alpha particles effectively kill the cancer cells while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. Preliminary clinical results showed that Alpha DaRT is safe and effective for treating squamous cell carcinoma tumors, with all patients' tumor sizes reducing and more than 70% of patients' tumors completely disappearing within a few days after treatment.

The company has started clinical trials with leading research centers throughout the world to investigate Alpha DaRT as a treatment for cancer using different protocols across a variety of indications, including: pancreatic cancer; breast cancer; head and neck cancer; gynecological cancer; and prostate cancer.

Alpha Tau has already established subsidiaries in the US and Japan and is in the process of forming further collaborations, to enable optimized local distribution and manufacturing of the Alpha DaRT cancer treatment.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 5, 2018