US-based cancer and neurodegenerative disease drug developer Cleave Therapeutics closed a $12m series B2 round on Tuesday featuring pharmaceutical firms Celgene and Astellas, the latter through its Astellas Venture Management unit.

The round was led by venture capital firm 5AM Ventures and included university-focused investment firm Osage University Partners (OUP), private equity firm Arcus Ventures, life sciences investment firm OrbiMed and VC firm US Venture Partners (USVP).

Founded in 2011 as Cleave Biosciences, the company is commercialising valosin-containing proteins to treat cancer and neurodegenerative disease. Its approach aims to exploit cellular stress mechanisms as well as protein homeostasis, a group of biological processes that influence the protein structure of cells.

The company’s lead candidate, CB-5339, works by inhibiting a protein mechanism called VCP/p97, which has been linked to controlling cellular processes that help cancerous cells thrive in the body.

CB-5339 is set to undergo phase 1 clinical testing for a form of blood cancer known as acute myeloid leukaemia and could also enter phase 1 studies in solid cancer tumours, under a potential sponsorship agreement with the US government-owned National Cancer Institute.

The company’s founding research was led by Raymond Deshaies, then a faculty member at Caltech’s division of biology and biological engineering, but now senior vice-president for discovery research at drug developer Amgen, though he remains with the university as a visiting associate.

Cleave has also named Amy Burroughs, previously executive-in-residence at 5AM Ventures, as its new chief executive, while Scott Harris has been appointed chief operating officer. He had been on the management team at two subsidiaries of genetic disease medicine developer BridgeBio: CoA Therapeutics and Navire Pharma.

Celgene and Astellas Venture Management both contributed to Cleave’s 2016 series B round alongside Nextech Invest, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Arcus Ventures, 5AM, Clarus Ventures, OUP, Orbimed and USVP. It had commitments for $37m but ultimately raised a total of $26m.

Astellas had joined the latter five to supply Cleave with $44m in series A funding in 2011, before NEA added $10m two years later to bring the round to $54m.

The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing. The article was amended on August 9 to reflect the precise round and overall money raised by Cleave Therapeutics.

Cleave Therapeutics, a US-headquartered developer of cancer and neurodegenerative disease drugs based on California Institute of Technology (Caltech) research, closed a $12m series B2 round featuring spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners (OUP) on Tuesday.
Venture capital firm 5AM Ventures led the round, investing together with pharmaceutical firms Celgene and Astellas, the latter through its Astellas Venture Management unit, as well as private equity firm Arcus Ventures, life sciences investment firm OrbiMed and VC firm US Venture Partners (USVP).
Founded in 2011 as Cleave Biosciences, the company is commercialising valosin-containing proteins to treat cancer and neurodegenerative disease. Its approach aims to exploit cellular stress mechanisms as well as protein homeostasis, a group of biological processes that influence the protein structure of cells.
The company’s lead candidate, CB-5339, works by inhibiting a protein mechanism called VCP/p97, which has been linked to controlling cellular processes that help cancerous cells thrive in the body.
CB-5339 is set to undergo phase 1 clinical testing for a form of blood cancer known as acute myeloid leukaemia and could also enter phase 1 studies in solid cancer tumours, under a potential sponsorship agreement with the US government-owned National Cancer Institute.
The company’s founding research was led by Raymond Deshaies, then a faculty member at Caltech’s division of biology and biological engineering, but now senior vice-president for discovery research at drug developer Amgen, though he remains with the university as a visiting associate.
Cleave has also named Amy Burroughs, previously executive-in-residence at 5AM Ventures, as its new chief executive, while Scott Harris has been appointed chief operating officer. He had been on the management team at two subsidiaries of genetic disease medicine developer BridgeBio: CoA Therapeutics and Navire Pharma.
OUP, Astellas, USVP, 5AM, Clarus and Orbimed supplied Cleave with $44m in series A funding in 2011, before New Enterprise Associates (NEA) added $10m two years later to bring the round to $54m.
Cleave secured commitments for a $37m series B round in August 2016, but only drew down a $26m first tranche before its clinical trial failed. The series B funding was provided by OUP, Celgene, Astellas Venture Management, Nextech Invest, Arcus Ventures, 5AM, Clarus Ventures, Orbimed, NEA and USVP.
– This article was amended on August 9 to reflect new information provided to GUV by Cleave Therapeutics that the company only drew down part of its series B round in 2016.