Calithera Biosciences has completed a $35m series D financing led by Adage Capital Partners, LP. Joining Adage as new investors in this financing are the Longwood Fund and two other institutional investor groups.
The transaction also included current investors Morgenthaler Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures and Delphi Ventures, who have funded the company through earlier rounds of financing.
Proceeds from the financing will be used to speed up the development of its lead clinical-stage candidate CB-839 through Phase I clinical trials in patients with advanced solid and hematological tumors.
According to the company CB-839, a potent and selective orally bioavailable glutaminase inhibitor, blocks the growth and survival of several different types of cancer cells by interfering with their metabolism of glutamine.
The company will also continue to develop novel therapeutics, including an inhibitor of MCL-1, an anti-apoptotic BCL-2 homolog over-expressed in many cancers.
Calithera Biosciences president and chief executive officer Susan Molineaux said with the support from new and current investors, the company will advance CB-839 via an early set of clinical trials aimed at identifying specific populations of cancer patients with glutamine-dependent tumors that would benefit from treatment with CB-839.
"CB-839 has demonstrated promising anti-tumor activity in a broad range of tumor types that depend on glutaminase for cell growth and survival," Molineaux said.
In conjunction with the financing, Longwood Fund partner and co-founder Christoph Westphal, will join Calithera's Board of Directors as an observer.
