Quanta Therapeutics – a privately-held biopharmaceutical company pioneering targeted therapies to treat RAS-driven cancers – announced recently a $50.7 million Series D financing. The funding was led by Avidity Partners and was supported by Quanta’s existing investors including Sofinnova Investments, Vida Ventures, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Longitude Capital, BVF Partners, and AbbVie Ventures. Other new participants were GC&H Investments (the partner fund of Cooley LLP) and WS Investment Company (Wilson Sonsini’s venture arm). The Series D funding brings the total amount raised since inception to over $142 million.
Utilizing unique chemistry that targets multiple conformations of KRAS, Quanta Therapeutics’ allosteric approach has the potential to expand the scope of treatable KRAS-mutant cancers while evading known mechanisms of resistance. And the proceeds from the funding will be used to advance Quanta’s pipeline including:
Two chemically distinct allosteric KRAS inhibitors, QTX3034, a multi-KRAS inhibitor, and QTX3046, a G12D-selective KRAS inhibitor. And the data from both programs, recently presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, demonstrated favorable preclinical profiles, including potent anti-tumor activity with oral bioavailability and brain penetration. These programs are currently in Investigational New Drug Application (IND)-enabling studies to support anticipated clinical trial initiation in KRAS-driven solid tumor indications in 2024.
A novel RAF1 discovery program employing direct allosteric modulation of the active RAS-RAF1 membrane signaling complex to selectively target a broad spectrum of RAS-driven tumors with the potential for kinase-independent synthetic lethality. And Quanta’s oral small molecule lead candidates from this program have displayed in vivo proof-of-concept activity.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are pleased to add Avidity Partners to our strong syndicate of high quality investors that share our vision for developing next-generation oral KRAS inhibitors with the potential to address mutations beyond G12C. With this additional funding, we will be well positioned to rapidly advance our two lead KRAS programs into the clinic in 2024 and generate proof-of-concept data.”
— Perry Nisen, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Quanta Therapeutics
“Quanta Therapeutics’ team of industry-leading scientists and advisors have developed differentiated platform capabilities and made tremendous strides in drugging one of the most challenging targets in oncology. We are thrilled to lead the Series D investment and look forward to working with the Quanta team to bring these important medicines to cancer patients as quickly as possible.”
— Lei Meng, Senior Therapeutics Analyst at Avidity Partners
“We are excited about the Quanta team’s potential to apply their unique allosteric-based approach to the development of oral small molecules for patients with difficult-to-treat KRAS-driven cancers. In the current biotech market, I believe companies who are leading their field with differentiated science and continue to show successful execution will garner strong investor support. In my opinion, Quanta is one of those companies.”
— Maha Katabi, Ph.D., CFA, General Partner at Sofinnova Investments
