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Google Ventures-Backed Arcus Biosciences Scoops Up $107M in Series C

Arcus Biosciences has now closed a $107 million Series C round for its mission to provide that backup support. The round was led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with a further 13 new or existing investors named in the company’s news release. Arcus has now raised a mighty $227 million in equity capital since it was founded in 2015.

New investors included Wellington Management Company, EcoR1 Capital, BVF Partners, Decheng Capital, Hillhouse, Aisling Capital and investors associated with Leerink Partners. Existing investors The Column Group, Foresite Capital, Invus Opportunities, DORIA, Celgene and Taiho Ventures also participated.

The Hayward, California-based startup has both small molecule and antibody candidates in its pipeline. The Series C will be used to advance two of those into new clinical trials: AB928, a dual adenosine receptor antagonist, and AB122, a PD-1 antibody that helps stimulate the immune response, according to the company statement.

Arcus’ AB928, a dual adenosine A2A receptor (ADORA2A) and ADORA2B antagonist, and PD-1 inhibitor AB122 are in separate Phase I monotherapy studies. Arcus plans to begin a Phase I/II study of AB928 in combination with AB122 in 1H18 for undisclosed cancers. Arcus gained exclusive rights to AB122 (formerly GLS-010) in North America

, Europe, Japan and other undisclosed regions from WuXi Biologics Inc. (HKSE:2269) and Harbin Gloria Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. in August. Next year, Arcus plans to start Phase I testing of AB680, an ecto-5′-nucleotidase inhibitor; and AB154, a T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT) mAb.

We are extremely pleased to add several outstanding investors with significant expertise in biotechnology to our investor group,” said Terry Rosen, Arcus’ chief executive officer, in a statement. “We have been assembling a team of staff, investors, leadership, and advisors with a highly aligned long-term vision to create, develop and commercialize innovative cancer immunotherapies that may offer a meaningful benefit to patients over existing treatments. These new investors share this vision, and we are thrilled to add their expertise, leadership, and commitment to our team.

We founded Arcus in 2015 to create a broad portfolio of novel molecules that target the most prevalent mechanisms of tumor-induced immune-suppression,” said Rosen in a September statement. “Our relationship with Taiho began with the inaugural investment of Taiho Ventures in Arcus in 2016, and since that time, we have come to recognize an alignment in vision with Taiho. We are thrilled to collaborate with Taiho on the advancement of our rapidly growing pipeline for the benefit of patients in Japan and other important territories in Asia. Given its significant expertise in the oncology area, we are confident that Taiho will maximize the value of our programs in these regions. We look forward to advancing at least four immuno-oncology product candidates into clinical development by the end of 2018.

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