Artios Pharma announces $84 M Series B financing

Artios Pharma Limited (Artios), a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company developing innovative treatments for cancer has announced the completion of a $84 million (£65 million) Series B financing following high interest from investors. The financing, which was significantly oversubscribed, was led by Andera Partners (formerly EdRIP) and LSP (Life Sciences Partners), with participation by additional new investors Pfizer Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund (NVF). Artios' existing shareholders Arix Bioscience, SV Health Investors, M Ventures, IP Group plc and AbbVie Ventures also participated in the fundraise.

Commenting on the announcement, Raphael Wisniewski, Partner of Andera Partners, said: "We believe Artios' DDR programmes have the potential to bring real impact to cancer patients. DDR is an exciting field of biology, which has been clinically validated by the first generation PARP inhibitors currently on the market. The new funds will allow Artios to advance its portfolio of first-in-class, small molecule DDR programmes including its lead programme targeting DNA polymerase theta (Polθ), through clinical proof of concept trials. We are delighted to work with the management team in building a world class DDR targeted oncology company."

Dr Rene Kuijten, Managing Partner of LSP, commented: "Artios represents a unique opportunity to deliver a truly world class biotech company. LSP has worked with Artios' team before at KuDOS (successfully sold to AstraZeneca) which developed olaparib, the first approved PARP inhibitor and used in ovarian and breast cancer, creating a billion dollar market. We are very excited to support this proven management team once again as it seeks to build on its leading position in the DDR field by advancing its programmes into clinical development."

Niall Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Artios, added: "We are delighted to welcome Andera Partners, LSP, Pfizer Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund to Artios and I would like to thank our existing investors for their continued support, which will help us develop and deliver our exciting DDR targeted therapies to cancer patients. This investor syndicate creates a very strong and committed shareholder base with a track record of supporting successful next generation companies. The oversubscribed Series B fundraise is a strong endorsement of our world-leading development pipeline and reflects the opportunity for DDR to yield new breakthrough oncology products."

Artios is actively developing a pipeline of highly promising first-in-class DDR therapies identified from a global network of leading researchers in the DDR field, including through Cancer Research UK. The inhibition of novel DNA repair targets like Polθ, in tumours where DNA damage response factors have been lost or down regulated, will lead to cancer cells being selectively killed without harming normal cells. This creates an opportunity for such products to be used both in monotherapy and in combination with existing and future cancer therapies.

In conjunction with the Series B financing, Raphael Wisniewski from Andera Partners, Rene Kuijten from LSP and Barbara Dalton from Pfizer Ventures, will join the Board of Artios as directors and Florian Muellershausen from NVF will join as an observer. This financing follows a $36 million Series A fundraise that was completed in September 2016.

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