Imperial Innovations et al. in £25m series-A for Artios
Imperial Innovations and SV Life Sciences have taken part in a £25m series-A funding round to support the spin-out of UK biotech Artios Pharma from Cancer Research UK.
Imperial has invested £5.1m for a 14.9% stake in the company, while other strategic investors including Abbvie Ventures, Merck Ventures, Arix Bioscience and Sixth Element Capital also took part in the round.
The fresh capital will enable the business to invest in the development of DNA damage response (DDR) cancer therapies and to advance its existing programmes to the clinical stage.
The transaction marks the first deal by Imperial since July, when it took part in a £15.5m series-A round for Precision Ocular. This follows a particularly busy start to 2016 for the VC, having made 10 investments up to and including the Precision Ocular deal.
Company
Founded in 2016 as a spinout from Cancer Research UK, Cambridge-headquartered Artios is a biotech company focused on DDR cancer therapies. Recent clinical tests have shown DDR drugs have the potential to cause selective death in cancer cells.
People
Imperial – Bobby Soni (director of healthcare).
Artois – Dr Niall Martin (CEO).
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