Accent Therapeutics – a biopharmaceutical company pioneering a new class of small molecule precision cancer therapies – recently announced the completion of a $75 million Series C financing. The funding was led by Mirae Asset Capital Life Science, with participation from other new investors, Mirae Asset Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and all existing investors, including The Column Group, Atlas Venture, Droia Ventures, GV, EcoR1 Capital, AbbVie Ventures, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, Timefolio Capital (formerly known as NS Investment) and others. In connection with the funding round, Naveen Krishnan, MD, MPhil, Managing Director of Mirae Asset Capital Life Science will join the Company’s Board of Directors.
The proceeds from the funding will be used to support the advancement of both lead programs –Accent’s first-in-class DHX9 inhibitor and a potentially best-in-class KIF18A inhibitor – through early clinical development including safety, pharmacokinetics and early efficacy studies.
Accent is developing therapeutics for novel and known, but suboptimally-addressed, high-impact oncology targets with the potential to benefit large patient populations. And the company’s DHX9 inhibitor seeks to address indications with high unmet need, including BRCA loss of function cancers (breast, ovarian), mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) or microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) cancers (colorectal, endometrial, gastric) and additional undisclosed cancer types. Accent’s second lead program, a KIF18A inhibitor, could also potentially benefit a large patient population across several cancer indications with high unmet need, including ovarian cancer and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).
KEY QUOTES:
“We are delighted to announce the backing of an exceptional investor syndicate who share our commitment to advancing innovative therapies for patients with cancer. These additional resources position us well to file INDs this year for both our DHX9 and KIF18A programs, and to rapidly progress them through early clinical development.”
– Shakti Narayan, PhD, JD, CEO of Accent Therapeutics
“Accent’s focus on targeting cancer cell vulnerabilities in a specific and robust way really stood out as we were evaluating companies for our first investment. They have assembled an incredible team with a successful track record of drug development, and we are excited to partner with the other seasoned investors to support Accent at this pivotal time.”
– Naveen Krishnan, MD, MPhil, of Mirae Asset Capital Life Science
